
l'RESTNTffE) W^ 



DISQUISITIONS AND NOTES 



ON 



' 



THE GOSPELS 



MATTHEW, 



BY 



JOHN H. MOEISON. 



2Tt)irli SEfcition. 



BOSTON: 

AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION, 

42 Chauncy Street. 
1872. 



^> 






!$■ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 

WALKER, WISE, & CO., 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



CAMBRIDGE'. 
PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 




PKEFACE 



The object of this work is to assist in the interpretation of the 
Gospels. It does not seek to go beyond the authority of Jesus. 
It does not undertake to show what the Evangelists ought to have 
said, and to force their language into accordance with it. If in 
any case it may seem to go beyond them, it has been only to 
meet the honest sceptic of our day on his own ground, and show 
either that he has misinterpreted the words and acts of Christ, or 
that those words and acts are in accordance with the great prin- 
ciples of reason, which reach alike through the realms of physical 
and moral being. The one all-sufficient answer to the unbelief 
of our age is still the same that Jesus addressed to the Sadducees, 
who represented the refined and philosophical scepticism of his 
day : " Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of 
God." A true understanding of the Scriptures, with the insight 
which is gained from them in the light of the highest philosophy 
into the ways and works and character of God, is the most effec- 
tual remedy for scepticism, whether it be a disease going on 
through moral infidelity to intellectual unbelief, or an honest 
antagonism to doctrines which falsely call themselves Christian or 
Evangelical. 

The best antidote to scepticism and to a narrow religious dog- 
matism, is the same. Both believers and unbelievers read too 
much about the Gospels in the works of their favorite guides, and 
study the Gospels themselves too little. We have never known 
a diligent and thorough study of the New Testament to end 
either in bigotry or unbelief. There is a truthfulness breathing 
through its writings which cannot but affect the ingenuous mind 
that puts itself freely and constantly into communication with 



IV PREFACE. 

them, and there is a freedom, a breadth of moral purpose, a 
largeness of thought, a catholicity of sentiment, about them, 
which must give something of its own generous and liberal spirit 
to those who place themselves habitually and unreservedly within 
their influence. 

In preparing this work I have sought to avail myself of such 
helps as have been furnished by the scholarship of past ages ; to 
take advantage of the improved methods of investigation which 
have been recently adopted, and to borrow liberally from the 
varied stores of information which have been gained through the 
enterprise, the laborious researches, the intellectual culture, and 
the conscientious love of truth for which many of the Biblical 
scholars of our day have been so honorably distinguished. For 
example, the text which is here followed in all the variations 
which are of consequence enough to warrant a departure from 
the reading in our Common English Version, is Tischendorfs 
Stereotype Edition of the New Testament, published in 1850. 
This work, which, we believe, stands higher than any other 
edition of the New Testament in the estimation of those most 
competent to judge, was prepared by a careful comparison of all 
the most ancient manuscripts of the New Testament to which the 
editor could gain access. Many years were spent upon it, and 
no labor or expense was spared which promised any useful 
results. In regard to the Geography of the Holy Land, and the 
topography of Jerusalem and its environs, so important in order 
to a correct understanding and a vivid perception of many 
incidents in our Saviour's life, almost everything that we know 
with clearness and certainty has been gained since Dr. Robinson 
began his Biblical Researches in Palestine, less than thirty years 
ago. Within less than forty years, since Winer first published 
his " Grammar of the New Testament Diction" in 1822, a revo- 
lution hardly less remarkable has taken place in this department 
of Biblical knowledge, and commentators have been called back 
from their freaks of utter lawlessness to the orderly rules and 
principles of grammatical construction. It is a matter of regret, 
that, in the only English version that we have of Winer's Gram- 
mar, the text, without any notice of the alterations being given, 
has been tampered with and changed by the translator for doc- 
trinal reasons. But the promptness with which this act has been 
exposed and rebuked in this country, not only by the Christian 



PREFACE. V 

Examiner, but by the Bibliotheca Sacra, is a cheering evidence 
of the candor as well as vigilance which guards the integrity of 
sacred learning. Indeed, within the lifetime of the present gen- 
eration, a more generous spirit has been infused into these 
studies. They have been taken out from the darkened cell of 
monkish or sectarian exclusiveness, into the light of the world's 
advancing intelligence. Critical works, like those of Stanley, 
Jowett, Trench, and Alford, Schleiermacher, Olshausen, De 
Wette, Winer, and Meyer, Stuart, Norton, Noyes, Palfrey, Fur- 
ness, Hackett, and Nichols, show that the finest artistic taste and 
moral sensibilities, the severest inductions of logic, the nicest dis- 
criminations of philological science, the most scholarly attainments 
and accomplishments, together with habits of profound and origi- 
nal thought, may be worthily employed in throwing light on the 
sacred writings, and in bringing out the great and momentous 
truths which they contain. This branch of learning is, therefore, 
indicating its liberal tendencies, and beginning once more to gain 
a hearing from classes of men who formerly looked upon it with 
indifference or contempt. A thorough knowledge of the Gospels 
is found to enrich the mind and enlarge the heart. While the 
most effective means of controlling a congregation, in or out of the 
church, — the arts of rhetoric, and the attractive but superficial 
attainments which go to furnish the intellectual wardrobe of a 
popular preacher, — tend towards bigotry and conceit, the study 
of the Bible, the habit of throwing one's self into the heart of one 
after another of its great subjects, with the intellectual helps 
which are essential to it, can hardly fail to quicken the intellect, 
refine the moral sentiments, and make one's sympathies wider 
and more generous. The study of the Gospels, pursued in such 
a spirit, must at least conduce to humility, and that is closely allied 
to charity. I think that we may see some evidence of this liber- 
alizing tendency in theological seminaries, where the greatest 
attention is paid to Biblical studies, as well as in the tone of 
works, like the Bibliotheca Sacra, which treat such subjects most 
thoroughly. Ecclesiastical history, dogmatic theology, the spec- 
ulative doctrines of metaphysics and of morals, may be enlisted 
in the service of a party ; but the Gospels more than anything 
else refuse to be confined within a sect, to serve its exclusive pur- 
poses, or to do its work. 

This volume was begun more than five years ago, at the sugges- 
1* 



VI PREFACE. 

tion of the Rev. Henry A. Miles, D. D., to meet what was sup- 
posed to be a want in this department of religious instruction. 
In its plan it differs materially from Livermore's Commentary, 
leaving more room for the extended discussion of subjects, and 
following each verse of the text less closely in its remarks. If I 
could be sure that in my Notes I have made as faithful and 
intelligent a use of the materials accessible to scholars now, as 
Mr. Livermore did of those which were within his reach in the 
preparation of his work twenty years ago, I should give it to the 
public with comparatively few misgivings. If this volume should 
be favorably received, it will probably be followed by another on 
the three remaining Gospels, though this forms a complete work in 
itself. Nearly all the difficult questions which are likely to come 
up in Mark and Luke have been already considered. But the Gos- 
pel of John will require an extended preparation, and, in many 
respects, a distinct and original mode of treatment. In the mean 
time, and as a most important part of the same series with this, our 
readers will be glad to learn that a volume on the other books of 
the New Testament may be expected from the Rev. A. P. Pea- 
body, D. D. 

J. H. M. 
Milton, February 14, 1860. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction 11 

The Gospel according to Matthew 31 

CHAPTER I. 

The Lineage or Genealogy of Jesus 33 

Miraculous Conception 35 

Prediction of Christ's Birth 39 

CHAPTER II. 

Visit of the Wise Men, or Magi 45 

Murder of the Children in Bethlehem 50 

Quotations from the Prophets 52 

CHAPTER III. 
John the Baptist 60 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Temptation in the Wilderness 70 

Makes his Home in Capernaum 78 

The Call of Simon Peter and Andrew his Brother, and of John 
and his Brother James 79 

CHAPTER V. 

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount 85 

The Beatitudes 87 

Fulfilling the Law and the Prophets . . . . . .88 

CHAPTER VI. 

General Design 101 

Lord's Prayer 102 

Perfect Trust in God 107 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Analysis 117 

CHAPTEE VIII. 

Gospel View of Miracles 126 

Healing the Leper 135 

Healing the Centurion's Servant . . . . . 141 

Bearing our Infirmities 143 

Let the Dead bury their Dead 147 

Stilling the Tempest 148 

Angelic Existences and Agencies 152 

Evil and Disorderly Spirits . . . . . . 157 

CHAPTER IX. 
Christ's Way of viewing Death .174 

CHAPTER X. 
Directions to the Apostles . . . . . .183 

The Coming of the Son of Man 186 

Further Directions to the Apostles 188 

Life or Soul 191 

Different Degrees of Reward . 193 

CHAPTER-XI. 

John the Baptist and his Message 201 

Great Privileges unimproved visited by a heavier Condemnation 207 

Christ's Thankfulness, and his Call to the Heavy Laden . 208 

CHAPTER XII. 

Christ's View of the Sabbath 216 

Hatred of the Pharisees against Jesus 219 

Casting out Satan by Satan 219 

The Unpardonable Sin . . . . . . . 222 

Further Remarks of Jesus 223 

Jesus and his Mother . 224 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Parables 232 

The Parable of the Sower 237 

Teaching in Parables 238 

The Tares and the Wheat • . 240 

The Wicked One 245 



CONTENTS. ix 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Herod Antipas . 260 

Feeding the Five Thousand 264 

Jesus walking on the Water 266 

CHAPTER XV. 

Jesus and the Jewish Traditions 273 

Fulfilment of Prophecy 274 

The Syro-Phoenician Woman 278 

Feeding the Four Thousand 279 

CHAPTER XVI. 

A Sign from Heaven 288 

On this Rock I build my Church 289 

The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven 290 

The Humiliation and Sufferings of the Messiah . . . 292 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Transfiguration 305 

The Coming of Elijah 312 

The Tribute-Money and the Fish 313 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Primitive Church of Christ 320 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Christian Law of Divorce 332 

Christ Blessing the Children 335 

The Young Man who came to Jesus 336 

Hard for the Rich to enter Christ's Kingdom . . . 338 

Gaining by Renouncing 340 

CHAPTER XX. 

The Laborers in the Vineyard • • 348 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Reckoning of Time ' • • • 361 

Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem . . . . • • 364 

CHAPTER XXII. 

The Wedding Feast ..."'.. \ .... 376 

Paying Tribute to Caesar 377 

The Resurrection from the Dead 379 

The Two Great Commandments 381 

Christ the Son of David ' 382 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Christ's Denunciation of the Pharisees . . . . . 391 

The Cumulative Guilt of a Nation . . . . . . 394 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Our Saviour's Gift of Prophecy 401 

The Coming of the Son of Man in Judgment to the Jews . 407 
The Coming of the Son of Man in Judgment to All . . .418 

Conclusion 422 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Purpose of these Parables 432 

Parable of the Virgins 432 

Parable of the Talents 434 

Parable of the Sheep and the Goats 434 

The General Resurrection and Day of Judgment . . . 437 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Supper at Bethany. — Judas 444 

The Last Supper 445 

Warning Peter 449 

The Agony of Gethsemane 450 

The Apprehension of Jesus 458 

Jesus taken before the High-Priest ,. 460 

Peter's Denial . . 461 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Preliminary Trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrim . . . 479 

Repentance and Death of Judas 480 

Jesus before Pilate * • • • 481 

The Crucifixion 483 

Precautions against his Resurrection 488 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The Gospel Narratives of the Resurrection .... 503 
The Different Accounts not Contradictory . • • .505 

The Different Times of his Appearance .... 508 

Each Account Independent of the Rest 511 

The Resurrection of Jesus . . 512 

The Formula of Baptism 515 

Concluding Remarks 519 

Index 537 




INTRODUCTION. 



HOW TO STUDY THE GOSPELS. 

We are more and more convinced that the Gospel of 
Christ is to be the great source of moral and religious in- 
struction and improvement to the world. The writings of 
the New Testament stand apart from all others. No works 
of man's genius pretend to an equal fellowship with them. 
They reach now, as they always have done, above the high- 
est thought and experience of our race. As the sky rises 
as far above us when we are on the loftiest mountain as 
in the lowest valley, so they rise as far above the ideas and 
civilization of the world now, as they did in the days of 
Tiberius and Nero. There can hardly be a more convinc- 
ing proof of their Divine authority than this ; we mean, in 
the words of a profound and original thinker, Dr. Nichols, 
" the Gospel's sun-like solitude in the moral firmament. 
The vast space around it is clear of all light but its own." 

And this suggests a most important principle of interpre- 
tation. As these writings rise above all others, and shine 
in a vast space " clear of all light but their own," so it must 
be in that light, more than by any helps drawn from inferior 
sources, that we are to learn and to apply their truths. It is 
wonderful how our Saviour imbued with the universality 
of his own mind every transient incident and word into 
which his thought or life passed, so that it has become, like 
himself, to us " the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

" The grass which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the 
oven," " the sower " who " went forth to sow," " the fields " 
" white already to harvest," " the light and gladness of the 
marriage feast " contrasted with " the outer darkness " where 
" shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth," the " grain of 
mustard-seed," the children at their sports in the market- 
place, " I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink," his taking 
little children into his arms, his inspection of the tribute- 
money, are, by means of the virtue which went into them 
from him, taken up from the sphere of limited and tran- 
sient expressions or incidents, and stand out forever as em- 
blems of universal and undying truths. He who could 
thus imbue the most ephemeral forms of speech with an 
imperishable life, and who could place a slight act of 
grateful reverence, or a casual conversation with a sinful 
woman by the side of a well, among the memorable events 
in the world's history, must have been charged with life and 
power beyond all others. And his language, passing from 
its earthly uses into a medium for the communication of 
divine and heavenly truths, and of an influence more sub- 
tile and life-giving than any truths in their naked presenta- 
tion to the intellect, can borrow little from subsidiary illustra- 
tions and analogies. "We have only to open our souls to it, 
as we do our eyes to the light, and it will come in. If we 
give ourselves up to it, we shall not be left in darkness or in 
doubt. It speaks with its own authority, and explains and 
enforces its own decisions. Often when we try to explain 
it, we shall only turn the attention away from it, or darken 
and obscure it by our words of inferior wisdom. A great 
part of our Saviour's language, and most of the lessons 
taught by his life, are of this character. He is the one 
Mediator between God and man, and it is worse than vain 
for us to interpose ourselves as his interpreters. 

This is one of the reasons why all commentaries are read 
with a sense of disappointment. They are expected to 
throw new light on the great essential teachings of Christ ; 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

and that is what no commentators can ever do. They 
might as well hope to throw new light upon the sun. Happy 
are they if they can to some extent remove from his teach- 
ings the obscurations which men have thrown over them. 
They are expected to give new efficacy to the " virtue " that 
goes out from them ; and that they can never do. We may 
hope to clear up some of the obscurities which obsolete cus- 
toms, or modes of speech foreign to our habits of thought, 
have caused. We may analyze our Saviour's discourses, 
and show the underlying principles by which the different 
parts are united. We may bring together expressions, such 
as " the kingdom of Heaven," " the coming of the Son of 
man," " the end of the world," which with slight modifica- 
tions are scattered through the accounts of his ministry, and, 
by a careful comparison of the different conditions and cir- 
cumstances under which they were used, may detect the dif- 
ferences of meaning which were put upon them, and the 
central idea which gives a unity to these different meanings. 
We may free some of the fresh and beautiful expressions of 
Scripture from their subjection to the canting phraseology 
of a formal piety, and some of its sublime enunciations 
of truth from their cruel bondage to the " decrees " of meta- 
physical speculations or ecclesiastical councils. We may 
compare the different narratives of the same events, and by 
combining them into one may harmonize what to the super- 
ficial reader seem to be contradictions. We may bring out 
the relations of time and space to the Gospel narratives, and 
thus make the acts and words of Jesus more consistent with 
one another, and more real to the reader. Above all, we 
may come back to the simple and natural methods of in- 
quiry which are employed in the interpretation of all other 
writings. What Bacon and Xewton, and other great philoso- 
phers, have done for the study of the mind of God in the 
book of nature, by breaking loose from arbitrary and un- 
natural methods of investigation, and applying the most 
direct and simple processes, is what the ablest religious 
2 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

thinkers and scholars must do, and to some extent are doing, 
for the study of the mind of God in the volume of that other 
book, in which he would reveal himself to us with greater 
fulness and a more affecting power. As what Bacon and 
Newton did most of all was to call men back to nature it- 
self, as it exists in the world around us, so what we have to 
do most of all is to call men back to the Gospel itself, as it 
lies before us, dimly prefigured in the Old Testament, and 
embodied in the New. 

There are two things essential in order to a right under- 
standing of the Gospels; — 1. A fitting preparation of heart; 
and, 2. A mind free from all preconceived opinions which 
may bias or mislead us in our investigations. The first is a 
moral and spiritual preparation ; the second is that, but it is 
also and mainly an intellectual preparation. 

1. There is the fitting preparation of heart. This is what 
our Saviour meant by the faith, which he always regarded 
as essential to salvation. It was not an intellectual belief 
such as men have made it since, but a disposition of heart, 
a readiness to receive and to obey him in whatever he might 
teach or command. With this faith in the heart showing 
itself by obedience and fidelity in the life, our Christian con- 
sciousness will be enlarged, and we shall take in more and 
more of the truth. All that is most essential in the Gospels 
may be received. Its holiest precepts will direct us in our 
lives ; its richest promises will be fulfilling themselves in 
our experience. Its great words of comfort and of power, 
which lie beyond the reach of criticism or commentary, will 
take up their abode in us, and become to us spirit and life. 
It is through this preparation of heart that the family Bible 
gains such a hold on the affections, instils into the soul its 
divinest influences, guides us in our duties, and teaches us 
how to turn sorrow and weariness and pain, and even sin 
itself, into the means of deliverance and triumph. Thus it 
is that Jesus introduces himself to us as our Teacher and 
Saviour. The Holy Spirit enters our souls, and renews 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

them with a perpetual influx of life. And God reveals him- 
self to us in whatever is great or beautiful in nature, in the 
dear and sacred relations which bind us to one another, and 
in all the gracious and merciful, though to us often mys- 
terious and painful, orderings of his providence. This use 
of the Bible — its daily and familiar companionship, its 
confidential communications to us in our retired moments 
— is worth more than all its more elaborate and learned 
lessons. 

--~27 But there is also to be a preparation of the intellect, 
and in order to this, first of all, we must allow no precon- 
ceived opinions to stand in the way of a perfectly free and 
fair investigation. We must remember that, as students of 
the New Testament, one is our Master, even Christ, and that 
as no want of faith can be an excuse for setting aside any- 
thing that he has taught, so neither should any precon- 
ceived opinions of ours, or creeds drawn up and estab- 
lished by human authority, stand as a barrier between his 
words and us. If our views are not broad enough to take 
in any doctrine that he has taught, then we must make 
them broad enough. There is a freedom, a greatness, not 
merely an elevation but a breadth of thought, in his instruc- 
tions, strangely in contrast with the narrow and enslaving 
opinions which metaphysical divines have elaborated " in 
order to satisfy the demand of unity in the Christian con- 
sciousness and in the activity of the dialectic reason," or 
which ambitious rulers in the Church have established as an 
engine of administrative authority. Christ has set our feet 
in a large place, and our allegiance to him requires that, in 
the study of his words and life, we should jealously assert 
and exercise the liberty wherewith he has made us free. 

A mournful spectacle, in this respect, has been presented 
by the Christian world. Advantage is taken of the new 
convert, in the most impressible moment of life, when he has 
no time or heart to examine for himself, when he is rejoicing 
in the advent of new hopes and a new experience, and his 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

whole nature is fluent with emotion, — advantage is taken of 
him, in the unsuspecting confidence of his first enthusiasm, 
to impose upon him the sectarian stamp which is to fix his 
theological opinions, and be henceforth a bar, on the right 
hand and the ^eft, in all his Biblical and theological investi- 
gations. Assuming those opinions to be true, he must study 
the Scriptures, not as a disciple of Jesus, but as the partisan 
of a sect. The word of God is in bondage. It can teach 
only what a human creed allows it to teach. In this re- 
spect, the Church of Rome, if it has a wider despotism than 
all the rest, is more consistent with itself. It does not pro- 
fess to leave the people free to read for themselves. It 
claims for itself the right and the authority to be the sole 
interpreter of the Scriptures. But in most of the Protes- 
tant denominations, while there is professedly the greatest 
reverence for the Scriptures and the rights of the individual 
reason and conscience, no man is allowed to study the Scrip- 
tures freely under the guidance of his own reason and con- 
science. If he finds in them doctrines not in accordance 
with " the standards " or " articles " of his church, he is 
called to account. If he continues so to read the Scriptures, 
and see those doctrines there, he is excommunicated, and 
shut out from the ordinances of his religion. — A generous 
and catholic faith, which would leave the Bible open to 
all, that they may read it as they do the book of nature, 
in perfect freedom, accountable only to God, — this faith 
in Christ and his instructions rather than in man and his 
traditions ; — if the Son of man should come now, would 
he find it on the earth? 

Yet none the less is it our duty so to learn and so to 
speak. In all branches of the Church we hear generous 
voices from men seeking a larger liberty for others, and 
using it themselves. Some, like Henry Ward Beecher, 
without any great amount of learning or any remarkable 
fitness for critical studies, take up the great truths of the 
Gospel into their capacious souls, and speak them out with 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

a power that breaks through sectarian restraints and finds 
an earnest response from thronging multitudes. Others, like 
Dr. Bushnell, with a riper scholarship, finer powers of anal- 
ysis, and the same hearty devotion to Christ, not as he lies 
bound up corpse-like in church creeds, but as he reveals 
himself through the writings of Evangelists and Apostles, 
and to the Christian consciousness of each individual soul, 
are preaching a more generous and living Gospel. Others 
again, like Jowett and Stanley and Williams and Archbishop 
THiately, from the great centres of religious intelligence to 
our Anglo-Saxon race, from Oxford and Cambridge and the 
metropolis of Ireland, are using a larger liberty, and in works 
of Biblical criticism or religious inquiry are giving to the 
world examples of a freer thought, and a more faithful 
exposition of writings, which rise above and pass beyond the 
limitations of scholastic theologians and sectarian creeds, as 
the heavens, which shine on all, rise above and stretch 
beyond every earthly distinction of individual proprietorship 
or national domain. It is a comfort to be able to quote lan- 
guage like this from a sermon preached before the Univer- 
sity of Oxford by the author of the Life of Dr. Arnold: 
" The true creed of the Church, the true Gospel of Christ, 
is to be found, not in proportion as it coincides with the 
watchwords or the dilemmas of modern controversy, but 
rather in proportion as it rises above them, and cuts across 

them The very peculiarity, the very proof of the 

divinity of his doctrine, was that they could not square it 

with any of their existing systems And it is both a 

confirmation and illustration of this character of Evangelical 
doctrine, that, if we look into some of the earthly repre- 
sentations of it which have met with most universal ac- 
ceptance, they also share in this freedom from the bonds in 
which the world is anxious to confine us." (Stanley's Can- 
terbury Sermons, pp. 113 - 115.) There is a healthful ring 
in these words, which is full of encouragement and hope. 
Not only are we, in the study of the Gospels, to beware 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

of every human authority that would interpose itself be- 
tween them and us, but we must also take heed to our- 
selves. We may be as much enslaved to our own way 
of viewing things, or to the personal feelings by which 
we are led in one direction or another, as to the estab- 
lished creed of a church. Whatever the motive, we must 
be careful not to twist and torture our Saviour's words 
to bring them into harmony with our ideas. A single 
example will illustrate what we mean. A writer, speaking 
of Christ in his mediatorial humiliation, says (Huntington's 
" Christian Believing and Living," p. 364): "Voluntarily, to 
this end, and for the time, things which only the Father 
knoweth are veiled from the Son, and he says (in language 
which we have only to suppose put into the mouth of any 
other being to find it in fact a proof of his divinity), 'My 
Father is greater than I.' " By the divinity of Christ the 
writer has just explained that he means his equality with 
the Father. To say then, that his declaration, " My Father 
is greater than I," is in fact a proof of his divinity, that is, a 
proof that his Father is not greater than he, is flatly to con- 
tradict the Saviour. To assert that we have only to sup- 
pose this language " put into the mouth of any other being 
to find it in fact a proof of his divinity," is to assert that in 
our opinion the language of Jesus, in its simple and ob- 
vious meaning, is so extravagant that we can accept it only 
in a sense directly opposite to what it says. Is this honor- 
ing Christ ? St. John (1 John iii. 20) uses a form of ex- 
pression precisely like this of Jesus, " God is greater than 
our heart." Is his language therefore a proof of his or of 
our divinity? In Job xxxiii. 12 we find it asserted, with no 
appearance of impiety or extravagance, " that God is great- 
er than man." We are not arguing, or speaking even by 
implication, against the doctrine in support of which this 
delaration of our Saviour is so distorted from its plain and 
natural meaning. We quote the passage simply as an illus- 
tration of what seems to us a vicious, arbitrary, and most 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

dangerous method of interpretation. Our reverence for 
Christ is shocked by such a way of dealing with his words. 

We solemnly believe that, except from a perversion of the 
moral sentiments, there is no greater bar in the way of a 
true understanding and application of the Gospels, than this 
habit of forcing them into conformity with our preconceived 
ideas. We must remember that they are to guide us, and 
not we them. If our capacity for Divine truth is to be the 
measure of what we receive, it must not be, even in our 
own minds, the measure of what Christ has taught, so that 
all his teachings must be forced into conformity with it. 
We must not let the limitations of our human thought turn 
aside from its only direct and natural meaning any clear and 
explicit statement of his. If we find ourselves tempted to 
do this, we may be sure that there is something wrong, not 
in his instructions, but in our opinions. We are, then, with 
all humility before him, to re-examine our opinions, and see 
if we cannot readjust them in such a way as to make them 
harmonize with the text. A less violent wrench than that 
which is here applied to the words of Christ would probably 
bring our views into accordance with his words. But if our 
opinions are fixed as one of the immutable terms in this 
controversy, then let us remember that so plain a declara- 
tion of his cannot be altered for our accommodation ; and, 
without attempting to make it mean precisely the opposite 
of what it says, as plainly as language can say anything, let 
us leave the two — his assertion and our opinion — con- 
fronting one another, and acknowledge that it requires a 
higher wisdom than ours to bring them into harmony. But, 
after all, as a matter of interpretation not less than of 
Christian faith, our human inference is more likely to 
be wrong than the words of Christ. The opinion of over- 
whelming majorities in his Church can have no weight 
against his decisive and unqualified declaration. We, — 
all men, — the doctrine " which always, everywhere, and 
by all men" has been maintained, if any such contro- 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

verted doctrine can be found, — may be wrong, but he 
cannot. 

"We must then be on our guard against this forced method 
of interpretation, which has prevailed in past centuries 
almost as extensively as forced methods of interpreting the 
phenomena of nature before the time of Bacon and Galileo, 
and which has its influence still, though the ablest Christian 
scholars and thinkers are protesting against it more and 
more. It has its influence just where it will be most widely 
disseminated and most fatal. It enters into the apparently 
superficial, but nevertheless powerful and lasting, means of 
religious education for the young. The creed is taught 
first, and then the Bible in conformity with the creed. In 
some churches, at the end of every chapter that is read, and 
of every Psalm that is rehearsed, a doxology, which is in 
fact a creed in miniature, is repeated, as if the words of 
Scripture could not be trusted without it. How much 
more in harmony with nature and with truth, as well as 
with Christ's method of teaching, is that suggested by the 
generous and manly Robertson in a Confirmation Lec- 
ture. " Let the child's religion," he says, (Sermons, 1st 
Series, pp. 73, 74,) " be expansive, — capable of expan- 
sion, — as little systematic as possible ; let it lie upon the 
heart like the light, loose soil, which can be broken through 
as the heart bursts into fuller life. If it be trodden down 
hard and stiff in formularies, it is more than probable that 
the whole must be burst through, and broken violently and 
thrown off altogether, when the soul requires room to germi- 
nate. And in this way, my young brethren, I have tried to 
deal with you. Not in creeds, nor even in the stiffness of 
the catechism, has truth been put before you. Rather has 
it been trusted to the impulses of the heart ; on which, we 
believe, God works more efficaciously than we can do. A 
few simple truths : and then these have been left to work, 
and germinate, and swell. Baptism reveals to you this truth 
for the heart, that God is your Father, and that Christ has 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

encouraged you to live as your Father's children. It has 
revealed that name which Jacob knew not, — Love. Con- 
firmation has told you another truth, that of self-dedication to 
Him. Heaven is the service of God. The highest blessed- 
ness of life is powers and self consecrated to His will. These 
are the germs of truth : but it would have been miserable 
self-delusion, and most pernicious teaching, to have aimed at 
exhausting truth, or systematizing it. We are jealous of 
over-systematic teaching. God's love to you, — the sacrifice 
of your lives to God, — but the meaning of that ? Oh ! a long, 
long life will not exhaust the meaning, — the name of God. 
Feel him more and more, — all else is but empty words." 

In all our studies, and especially in all our religious teach- 
ings, we must leave room for growth, and be more earnest 
to implant the principles of righteous living, and a reverence 
for the truth as it is in Jesus, than to prove any doctrines on 
which the Christian world is divided to be true. And if at 
any time, we are to hold our dogmatic theology in abeyance, 
it is when we are engaged in interpreting for ourselves, or 
teaching to others, the words and the acts of Christ. 



Perhaps the forced methods of interpretation have for no 
single purpose been carried to a more unwarrantable extent 
than in the attempts which have been made to produce a 
literal conformity between different accounts of the same 
event by the different New Testament writers, so as not to 
violate the doctrine of a plenary verbal inspiration. But 
now that doctrine is no longer held to be respectable among 
enlightened Biblical critics and scholars. Dr. Cureton, the 
learned Canon of Westminster, in the preface to his "-Syriac 
Gospels," p. lxxxix., speaks of " the verbal inspiration of the 
Gospels " as " a theory long since abandoned by all scholars 
and critics, which, indeed, could only be maintained by those 
who are entirely ignorant of the way in which the New 
Testament has been transmitted to our own times, and which, 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

if persisted in, must involve very serious objections against 
these inspired writings, and tend to infidelity." Alford, in 
the Prolegomena to his learned and valuable Commentary 
on the New Testament, thus speaks of the theory of verbal 
inspiration : " Much might be said of the a priori unworthi- 
ness of such a theory as applied to a Gospel whose character 
is the freedom of the spirit, not the bondage of the letter ; 
but it belongs more to my present work to try it by applying 
it to the Gospels as we have them. And I do not hesitate 
to say, that being thus applied, its effect will be to destroy 

altogether the credibility of our Evangelists The 

fact is, that this theory uniformly gives way before intel- 
ligent study of the Scriptures themselves ; and is only held, 
consistently and thoroughly, by those who have never un- 
dertaken that study." 

But the same violence which has been employed in for- 
cing the language of the Gospels into harmony with a creed 
or an unnatural theory of inspiration, has also been used to 
force their statements into accordance with some favorite 
theory of the writer. Thus Paulus has endeavored to ex- 
plain the miracles of Christ in accordance with a theory 
which excludes all miraculous influences, and according to 
which neither the rulers daughter nor Lazarus was actu- 
ally dead. The great value of Dr. Furness's charming 
writings on the Gospels is, we think, in some cases, seri- 
ously impaired by the restraint that is put upon him, and 
which he imposes upon the accounts of the Evangelists, 
in consequence of his favorite theory in regard to the man- 
ner in which miracles must be wrought. 

The same unnatural perversion of the language of the 
Gospels has been effected by sceptics and unbelievers, 
who exercise as much ingenuity in forcing the accounts 
of the different Evangelists into a contradiction, as the old 
commentators did in forcing them away from it. They find 
it easier thus to discredit the authority of the sacred writ- 
ings altogether, than to explain them away in such a manner 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

as to confirm their naturalistic theories. The critical writings 
of Strauss and Baur are of this sort. They begin with 
theories about the Gospels, to which the Gospels themselves 
are forced to submit. There is no question in regard to the 
learning, the ability, or the consummate generalship of the 
men who lead the movement from within against the authority 
of the Gospels. And they have been of immense service in 
calling the attention of sensible and educated men to the 
Gospels, and inducing them to examine them for themselves, 
not through the perverse optics of these framers of theories, 
but with their own calm and unbiassed judgment. This of 
itself is a great gain. All that is needed in order to estab- 
lish the truthfulness of the Gospels is that they should be 
thus examined. 

And here we cannot too earnestly urge the great body 
of intelligent men and women to refuse to take any one's 
theory about the Gospels without first studying, not specious 
writings in support of it, but the Gospels themselves. Let 
them test every assumption of the theorist by a careful 
reference to the record, and not admit this or that assertion 
in regard to what is found in them, until they see it there 
with their own eyes. The study of the Gospels is a simple 
thing. The knowledge which has a direct and important 
bearing on the most important subjects in them is contained 
within a small compass. The comparison of one narrative 
with another, in order to satisfy ourselves in regard to their 
true relations, is easily effected by a little care, and the ap- 
plication of a reasonable amount of intelligence. There is 
a vast deal of humbug in the pretensions of our modern 
neologists. The cloud of words thrown round their theories, 
like the cloud of mysticism which enveloped the old doctrines 
of the Church in its pretensions to an infallible inspiration 
and authority, has only to be tried in the light of reason and 
common sense by the truthful words of the Evangelists, and 
it will vanish away. 

Extraordinary pretensions, however, have always, for a 



24: INTRODUCTION. 

season, an influence altogether disproportionate to the real 
power that is in them. A sceptical thought is easily lodged 
in the mind. Delicate and sensitive natures, who wish to 
believe, are afraid to examine, lest the foundations of their 
faith should sink under them. Strong-minded, efficient men, 
who ought to study into these things, and thus satisfy them- 
selves, as they easily might, are deterred from so doing by a 
secret misgiving lest the grounds of their faith should not 
bear investigation. Some retreat into the straiter sects, 
from a less to a more rigid form of Congregationalism, from 
Congregationalism to Episcopacy, from Episcopacy to the 
Church of Rome, or directly, for extremes meet on the other 
side, from the Absolutism of Rationalism to the Absolutism 
of Romanism. There is everywhere, even in the Roman 
Catholic communion itself, a sentiment of unrest, coming 
from an inward unbelief, which men try to cover up and 
hide from themselves by stricter articles of faith, by more 
imposing forms of worship, by Church authorities, instead 
of healing it by letting in upon it the simple truths of the 
Gospel, as examined in the light of reason, and tested by 
conscientious and faithful lives. But change of position is 
not change of heart. The inward unrest, the hidden un- 
belief, which durst not trust God's truth unless guarded by 
human defences, clings to them still. These make-believe 
methods of finding a religious faith, and with it health and 
peace of mind, answer no good end. The sudden and un- 
natural marriages which are sometimes sought in the des- 
peration of disappointed affections are seldom blessed. 
There is a hidden element of falsehood, or self-deception, 
at the centre of them all. 

If we have doubts, we must meet them fairly and honestly 
for ourselves. If they are practical doubts, relating to the 
essentials of Christianity, the efficacy of prayer, the presence 
and the power of God in the soul, the mediatorial office of 
Christ between God and, men, we must read ihe Gospels 
for practical guidance, and, seeking to give ourselves up 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

entirely to their instructions by prayer, by humility of heart, 
by a warmer charity towards others, by more faithful and 
obedient lives, with the help which God will certainly give 
to us if we seek it thus, in our renovated affections, and the 
deeper, purer life of the soul, we shall find the faith, and 
with it the inward tranquillity and repose, which we crave. 
That is, we shall find enough of them to serve as a foretaste 
and pledge of the perfect love and peace which shall be 
fulfilled to us only in the kingdom of Heaven. And this 
is all that has been gained by the greatest saints, — by 
Madame Guy on and Fenelon, Archbishop Leighton and Bax- 
ter, Charles Wesley and Channing and William Croswell, 
as we see when we are admitted to a knowledge of their 
interior lives. " The perfect," we once heard Dr. Channing 
say, " is what we must always seek, but never hope to 
gain." If, on the other hand, our doubts are of an intel- 
lectual character, we must meet them fairly on intellectual 
grounds, and not push them aside for others, whether sceptics 
or bigots, philosophers or Christian believers, to do our 
work for us. It is better to read the Gospels ourselves, not 
through the creed of a church or a philosophical dogma, but 
with our own eyes and minds, such as God has made them, 
and judge of them by the principles of reason and common 
sense. If they give way under the examination, let us meet 
the facts of the case like brave and honest men, and not like 
children, who blind their eyes from fear of seeing a ghost. 
But they will not give way. They only ask to be tried on 
their own merits. The reason why they seem to us so un- 
substantial is, that we do not rest our weight upon them. 
They are like the bridge across the St. Lawrence at Mon- 
treal, which sensitively vibrates to the slightest breeze, and 
therefore the timid traveller may fear to trust himself upon 
it ; but ten thousand tons of human beings and costly mer- 
chandise resting upon it, only show how firm and strong it is. 
The more severely we test the Gospels, the more securely 
shall we find ourselves sustained by them. " Come, and see, 

3 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

and know for yourselves," is their appeal to us. Only let 
us examine them as they are in themselves, giving ourselves 
up to their great thoughts, opening our souls to the holy 
spirit which is proceeding from them, and the divine life 
which is embodied in them, and which by an eternal genera- 
tion is born from them into the heart and life of our race. 
If we have doubts or fears, let us search the Scriptures till 
we are satisfied in regard to them. We have never known 
a man to have his faith shaken by a thorough and impartial 
investigation of the New Testament ; but thousands have in 
this way had it confirmed and established. 

It does not require any great amount of learning to study 
the Gospels intelligently. The deepest thought and the 
widest amplitude of knowledge may find room for exercise, 
if we undertake to explore them in all their fulness, and in 
all the curious details connected with them. We may lose 
ourselves amid the wonders and mysteries of the Divine 
nature, if we undertake to fathom them in our speculations. 
But a clear mind, faithfully applying itself to the study of 
the Gospels in a truthful spirit, is all that is required in 
order to gain from them the knowledge that is most valuable 
to us. An acquaintance with ancient customs, with oriental 
productions, modes of living, and forms of speech, may give 
us a more precise idea of what is meant in some cases. But 
even then, except in a very few instances, the essential truth 
is not affected. It may be pleasant to us, and may gratify 
a reasonable curiosity, to know precisely what were the lilies 
of the field and the fowls of the air to which our Saviour 
called attention, as emblems and proofs of the paternal 
providence of God, — to know that it was the fruit of the 
carob-tree, "with a hard, dark outside, and a dull sweet 
taste," and not husks, which the Prodigal longed to eat as 
he fed it enviously to the swine, while he was perishing 
with hunger, — to know how the houses were constructed so 
that the paralytic might be taken up by an outside staircase 
to the flat roof, and let down through it on his bed into 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

the inner room or open court, where Jesus sat surrounded 
by a throng of people. But the lesson taught, in each one of 
these cases, to our minds and hearts, is wholly independent 
of such knowledge. And there is danger lest, in seeking 
for the adventitious information, we should have our interest 
absorbed in that which was intended only as an illustration, 
and drawn away from the vital truth which it was employed 
to convey. 

The geography of Palestine is intimately connected with 
our Saviour's ministry. As we follow him back and forth, 
from place to place, on the map, events start up before us, 
distinct and alive, each one with its own individuality upon 
it. Almost any person may learn enough of the geography 
of Palestine for this purpose. In getting a clear view of 
his life, and in comparing the different Evangelists with one 
another, it will be a great help to connect each event with 
the spot where it occurred, and thus make it real to us. It 
w T ill give the Gospels a firmer hold on our minds, and free 
us from the indistinct and dreamy notions with which we 
regard them, and through which they are so easily turned 
into myths. We are thus enabled to feel and handle them, 
and see that they are not bodiless apparitions, but substantial 
facts. But we may study the geography of Palestine so as 
to know all about the various localities in their relation to 
the Gospels, and yet be all the w r hile so absorbed in the 
geography itself as to have no perception of the moral influ- 
ences which have made those places holy and immortal in 
the affections of mankind. Much of our Sunday-school 
teaching, we fear, is of this sort. 

One difficulty in the way of our studying the Gospels 
arises from the fact that we are so familiar with them that 
their words pass through our minds without making any im- 
pression. This difficulty may be obviated by reading them 
in some foreign language, or, if we cannot do that, in some 
translation different from our common version. Norton's or 
Campbell's translation, or even Sawyer's, notwithstanding 



28 INTRODUCTION. 

the severe criticisms which it has called out, will sometimes 
reveal to us a sentiment or a thought which had escaped us 
in our daily reading. We have endeavored in this work 
to assist the student by analyzing in some cases, e. g., in 
the Sermon on the Mount, our Saviour's discourses, and thus 
bringing out the depth, the affluence, the comprehensiveness 
and completeness of the thought. After such an analysis we 
may come back to the familiar language with new interest ; 
And while we see in it a deeper and richer meaning than 
before, we may find in the old words an aroma of Christian 
sentiment which had escaped in the process of analyzing the 
thought, and which can be embodied in no other words but 
those around which the religious associations of our own 
lifetime, and of centuries before, have been gathering. 

We would ask the attention of those who have a taste for 
such investigations, and particularly, if it may be done with- 
out presumption, the attention of men of a legal training, to 
the narratives which we have constructed from the different 
Evangelists, of the events connected with the last days of 
our Saviour's life, and the morning of the Resurrection. No 
external evidence has ever produced such undoubting con- 
fidence in our mind as the way in which these four distinct 
narratives, now approaching and now diverging from one 
another, — now almost united in one, and now apparently 
inconsistent with each other, — keep on, each one in its inde- 
pendent course, while all combine to set forth the same great 
facts with no real inconsistency even in their minutest details. 
We would particularly ask that the accounts of the denials 
by Peter, the trial of Jesus, and the events on the morning 
of the Resurrection, may be subjected to the severest test of 
a judicial investigation, by the aid of a topographical plan 
of Jerusalem and its vicinity, and of a Jewish palace, with 
a careful attention to the precise words of the original Greek 
(disregarded in our English version), by which the writers 
denote the different parts of a palace, — the house itself, the 
inner court or hall, the gateway or entrance to the court, and 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

the tessellated pavement in front of the palace, on which 
Pilate erected the judgment-seat, from which he unwillingly 
pronounced the sentence of death on the Saviour of the 
world. Those who may be inclined to follow out this inter- 
esting and conclusive method of inquiry under the guidance 
of a powerful, discriminating, and appreciative mind, are 
referred to the very able work entitled " Hours with the 
Evangelists," by I. Nichols, D. D. " The more," says Da 
Costa, " we examine the Gospels in detail, as with a mi- 
croscope, the more diversities will multiply under our eyes ; 
but the more also shall we find these diversities consistent, 
and so consistent that they constitute in each of the four 
Gospels a particular and distinctive character. And when 
once we have found this special character of each Gospel, 
we have also found the way to bring all these real diversities 
and apparent contradictions into one final and harmonious 
unity." 

But after all, even in an intellectual point of view, the 
most effective method of studying the Gospels is with a 
direct application of their precepts to the duties and cir- 
cumstances of life. The philosophy of our day is experi- 
mental. Its truths and their value in each case are tested 
by experiment under the guidance of known facts. So the 
precepts of Christ, both in regard to their truthfulness and 
their value, are to' be tested by being applied and carried 
out in practice. The great interior principles of faith and 
love must be tried in our hearts ; and they must be carried 
out in our fidelity to the precepts and commands by which 
our external lives are to be regulated. In this way, the 
intellectual study of the Gospels, which often turns aside 
into eccentric vagaries or degenerates into lifeless and heart- 
less speculations, is tested by our own - experiences, and the 
truths which it places before us as abstractions are filled out 
with the warmth and enthusiasm which are essential to them, 
and without which we can no more see thein as they are, 
than we can understand the beauty of the flowering fields 

3* 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

as they are in June, from the dried specimens in the hands 
of a botanist, or the diagrams in his book. There is a spir- 
itual life flowing through every part of the Gospels, which 
have been created as living organisms, and not put together 
as pieces of mechanism ; and when in our own souls we 
have experienced that inward life, we see it in them and 
them in it. Every word that our Saviour spoke, every act 
that he did, has an organic completeness in itself, and is 
endowed with the power of perpetuating its own life in the 
lives of others. Every portion of the Gospels has this 
essential vitality, a living and perpetual witness, to the soul 
which receives it, of the source from which it came. Cut oft 
any one precept, and it grows out again from the parent 
stock. You cannot make it dead, so long as you test its 
vitality in your own soul. 

The separation of the intellectual study of the Gospels 
from the life in which their truths live and bloom, is a sad 
necessity, if it be a necessity, in the scientific education of 
theological students. It leads them, like the wandering spirit 
of old, into dry and desolate places, and opens before them 
the dreariest visions of holiness and faith. He who studies 
our Saviour's precepts about prayer, and never prays, can 
have, even intellectually, but a meagre idea of the subject. 
He who studies the great law of pre-eminence among his 
disciples (Matt. xx. 26) will make poor work with the doc- 
trine until he has sought to realize it in himself, not only by 
an outward show of obedience, but an inward subjection of 
his whole nature to its spirit. It is only by the union of study 
and practice that the highest ends of religious teaching can 
be gained. Then the marriage between the intellect and 
the heart will be completed, and from it will be born a 
life of faith and holiness and charity, which will grow up as 
the true and worthy offspring of such a union. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 



It does not enter into the design of this work to determine the 
authenticity or genuineness of the Gospels. We take that for 
granted, referring those who may wish to examine the matter 
thoroughly to Mr. Norton's " Genuineness of the Gospels " for 
the external evidence, and to Dr. Nichols's " Hours with the 
Evangelists " for the internal evidence. We suppose the Gospel 
of St. Matthew to have been written by him in the language 
which was then spoken in Palestine and which is usually called 
the Aramnsan or Aramaic, and to have been afterwards translated 
into Greek, either by the Apostle himself or by some other com- 
petent person. In the year 1842 a copy of the greater part of 
the Gospel of St. Matthew in the Syriac language was obtained 
by Archdeacon Tattam from a Syrian monastery in the valley of 
the Natron Lakes, which was published in 1858 by William Cure- 
ton, D. D., Canon of Westminster, &c, which is regarded by the 
very learned editor as among the oldest manuscript copies of 
the Gospel now known, and respecting which he does not hesitate 
to express his belief, that " it has, to a great extent, retained the 
identical terms and expressions which the Apostle himself em- 
ployed ; and that we have here, in our Lord's discourses, to a 
great extent, the very same words as the Divine Author of our 
holy religion himself uttered in proclaiming the glad tidings of 
salvation in the Hebrew dialect to those who were listening to 
him, and through them to all the world." (Cureton's Syriac 
Gospels, Pref., p. xciii.) The precise time when the Gospel was 
written is uncertain. "Were we," says Davidson (Introduc- 
tion to the New Testament, p. 136), "to express an opinion, 
we should be inclined to adopt A. D. 41, 42, or 43 as the most 



32 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 

probable." " The place where the Gospel was written is uni- 
formly said to have been Judasa." Davidson supposes it to have 
been written in Hebrew, and that the Greek version " must have 
been made before the close of the first century ; probably before 
the appearance of the Gospel of John." It is one of the tradi- 
tions respecting it, and it bears internal evidence to the same 
effect, that it was written particularly for the Jews. We see 
marks of this intention, especially in the first chapters ; but 
throughout the Gospel there is evidently a peculiar adaptation to 
the Jewish mind, particularly when speaking of events as neces- 
sary in order to the fulfilment of the prophecies, and in the pains 
which are taken to set forth the new religion as a fulfilment, 
while the traditions of the Pharisees were only a perversion and 
abuse, of the Law and the Prophets. 



MATTHEW. 



CHAPTER I. 

1-17. — The Lineage or Genealogy of Jesus. 

The Gospel of Matthew bears internal evidence of having 
been written by a Jew, and with particular reference to his 
own countrymen. We see marks of this design especially 
in the first chapters, which open the whole subject from a 
Jewish point of view, and in a manner particularly adapted 
to the feelings and habits of thought then existing among the 
Jews. The writer is not, as has been charged against him, 
imbued with their prejudices and their erroneous ideas re- 
specting the Messiah. But he has been educated as a Jew, 
and in sympathy with the Jewish mind. If he has also been 
introduced into a higher realm of spiritual life and thought, 
he is able to enter, as no one but a person born and brought 
up in a Jewish atmosphere could, into the views and feelings 
of his countrymen. By his appreciation of their state of 
mind, and his sympathy with them in their religious expec- 
tations, he is able to gain a hearing from them, while he 
turns in the direction of their strongest expectations, and 
shows how the prophetic writings find their fulfilment in 
Jesus. His quotations and allusions, his local and historical 
references, his .mode of presenting what they would regard 
as objectionable subjects, his forms of expression and meth- 
ods of appeal through their early religious associations, are 



34 MATTHEW I. 1-17. 

all adapted to the Jewish mind, and fitted to lead them, 
without any needless shock to their prejudices, into a recog- 
nition of Jesus as the Messiah. 

We have an instance of this in the opening words of the 
Gospel, " The lineage of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of 
Abraham." The term " son of David " seems to have been 
one held in the highest reverence among the Jews, even if 
it were not used, as it probably was, like the word Messiah, 
to designate "him who was to come," their great "deliverer" 
and " redeemer." By the use of this term, therefore, Mat- 
thew at the beginning appeals to a national expectation, 
which he still encourages when, in a genealogy, probably 
copied from public registers whose authority was recognized 
by the Jews of his day, he traces step by step the descent 
of Jesus from their most powerful monarch, and through 
him from their most illustrious ancestor. The prejudice 
which otherwise might have led them to put aside with 
contempt the claims of a poor young man from Galilee, is 
thus removed at the very outset. Though Jesus of Naza- 
reth was despised and rejected of men, yet he was descended 
from a race of kings and patriarchs. We can scarcely con- 
ceive how this dry catalogue of hard words should rouse 
the national enthusiasm of a Jew by its roll of mighty 
names, and awaken his respect for one whose advent into 
the world had been prepared through such a line of an- 
cestors. 

In order that it should have any weight with the Jews, 
this table of names must have been copied from family 
registers which they recognized as authentic. Whatever 
view, therefore, we may take of the inspiration of the writer, 
our confidence in his accuracy cannot be affected by any 
omissions or mistakes that may be pointed out in the list 
of names. It is not on his authority as that of an inspired 
writer, but on their authority as records preserved and 
accepted by the Jews, that Matthew presents them to his 
countrymen. If he had been inspired to correct every 



MATTHEW I. 18-25. 35 

mistake and supply every omission, every alteration that 
he made would serve only to destroy their authority with 
those for whom he was writing, and to excite their preju- 
dices against him. This view of the matter takes away 
altogether the force of objections to the accuracy of the 
Gospels, which are drawn from apparent discrepancies be- 
tween the genealogy here and that in Luke iii. 23-38. 
We have only to suppose them to be, as they unquestion- 
ably are, copies of different records, which had been kept 
in different places, and which varied from one another, 
either through want of exactness in the records, or in con- 
sequence of the different methods by which the line of an- 
cestors was brought down from a common original. The 
labored attempts, therefore, to reconcile these two lists of 
names with each other, or with records found in the Old 
Testament, however interesting they may be to ingenious 
scholars, can have no important bearing on the trustworthi- 
ness of the Gospels. 

18-25. — Miraculous Conception. 

The account of the birth of Jesus which is given here 
and in the second chapter of Luke, has been a stumbling- 
block to many sincere minds, and is rejected as in itself 
incredible by some who accept as authentic the other evan- 
gelical accounts of miracles. But is there anything in the 
nature of things incredible in what is here recorded ? The 
great naturalists of our day recognize a succession of creative 
epochs, when higher types of physical life were introduced. 
The different orders of animals which have appeared from 
time to time were not slowly evolved by a process of de- 
velopment from lower orders previously existing, but one 
after another they have been introduced by separate and 
original acts of creation. Now, as the physical advance- 
ment of the world has thus been marked by distinct crea- 
tive epochs, might we not expect something of the same 



36 MATTHEW I. 18-25. 

kind in its spiritual advancement ? " But how is it possible," 
we are asked, "that such an event as that recorded here 
and in the second chapter of Luke could take place?" 
How is it possible, we ask in reply, that a new order of 
animals should be introduced, or the first man created? 
We cannot understand these things, and our ignorance 
should make us slow in setting limits, not only to what 
is possible, but to what is probable, in the exercise of God's 
almighty and creative power. Within certain spheres of 
creative action, where facts enough are ascertained to de- 
termine what is the established order of development and 
progress, as, for example, in the sciences of natural history, 
chemistry, and astronomy, we may draw our inferences 
with a good degree of certainty, and foretell what is to be 
from our knowledge of what has been. But even here we 
are not competent to decide beforehand when a new crea- 
tive epoch shall supervene upon the existing order of things 
in time to come, as it has in time past, or whether it shall 
come at all. Our knowledge does not reach far enough, — 
we have not ascertained facts enough, or with a sufficient 
degree of exactness, — to comprehend these widely separat- 
ed and therefore apparently extraordinary interpositions, or 
to reconcile them with what we know of the laws of nature. 
There was a time when the motion of comets was supposed 
to be wholly eccentric, and inconsistent with the laws of 
planetary motion. It only required a wider and more pre- 
cise knowledge of facts to reduce them all to the same law. 
So, unquestionably, it is in regard to the widely separated 
creative epochs in the physical universe. 

And have we not a right to infer, at least as not im- 
possible or in itself extremely improbable, something of the 
same kind in regard to those apparently anomalous inter- 
ventions by which a higher spiritual life has from time 
to time been brought into the world ? Is it the part of a 
true philosophy to deny the alleged fact, because we can- 
not see far enough to reconcile it with our preconceived and 



MATTHEW I. IS -25. oi 

limited ideas of nature and the natural order of events ? 
In regard to the miraculous conception of Jesus by an 
immediate creative act of the divine spirit, may we not 
regard it as analogous to those creative epochs when new 
orders of plants or animals are first introduced ? As to the 
vulgar objection, that it involves an act which is in itself 
impossible, or at least utterly incredible, we may allow it 
to have some weight with us, when those who urge it show 
wherein the birth of a soul into the world by the immediate 
act of God, as here related, is in itself more impossible, or 
more utterly inexplicable to us, than the ordinary process 
by which a plant, an animal, or a human being is produced. 
'The precise means by which life is perpetuated is just as 
much a mystery to us as the means by which it was origi- 
nally introduced with the first plant, or man, or with Jesus, 
who stands at the head of a new and spiritual creation. 

This much may be urged from their own stand-point 
against the conclusions of those who, on scientific grounds, 
reject this whole class of facts as lying outside of the order 
of nature. There are others, who believe in the Christian 
miracles, but reject the account of the miraculous conception 
as something plainly unnatural and improbable. Among 
these, perhaps at the head of this class of writers, is Dr. 
Fnrness, in the views which he has taken of this matter 
in the fresh, original, and beautiful works which he has pub- 
lished on Jesus of Nazareth. He lays great emphasis on 
the naturalness of the Christian miracles, — the ease with 
which they were evidently performed by Jesus in the 
natural exercise of his own faculties. But why were they 
so easy to him, unless because of the extraordinary powers 
with which he was endowed ? He came to introduce a new 
epoch of spiritual life ; and, that it might be in conformity 
with the order of nature, must it not have been by a new 
act of creation ? He who stood at the head of this new 
era, by the natural exercise of his own powers uttering 
thoughts and doing deeds man never had done before, must 



38 MATTHEW I. 18-25. 

have been endowed as man never had been before. And 
could these extraordinary endowments have been bestowed 
upon him in any way more in accordance with the order of 
nature than by the method here indicated, i. e. by a new 
act of creative power ? 

When speaking of nature as containing within itself all 
the powers and agencies of the universe, we must not con- 
fine ourselves to the limited operations which take place 
within our ordinary experience, but must leave room for 
those great secular interpositions which are equally a part 
of the divine system of nature, and which, at widely dis- 
tant intervals in the fulness of time, bring in new orders 
of beings and new eras of life. Immeasurably the greatest 
religious epoch since the creation of man was that which 
was introduced by Jesus. When we speak of it merely 
as of a new revelation, we fail utterly to express either its 
character or its greatness. Matthew and Luke, in their ac- 
count of the conception of Jesus by an immediate act of 
God's creative spirit ; the introduction to the Gospel of John 
respecting the word made flesh ; the language of Paul, as, 
e. g. in Col. i. 15 - 20, where he speaks of Christ as the 
first-born of every creature, and, not the revealer alone 
of divine truth, but the creator of new worlds of spiritual 
life and power, — are in this way brought into harmony 
with one another, with the account of his miracles, and with 
the otherwise extraordinary language which he applied to 
himself. The Gospel account of the conception of Jesus 
comes as the fitting and natural introduction into the world 
of a divine life, which, growing up under the laws of our 
mortal and human condition, should, as a new creation, 
stand at the head of a new era in man's history. Here, 
at its beginning on the earth, is a fountain high and large 
enough to fill all the streams of action, thought, and life 
which flow through the Gospel narratives. The knowl- 
edge, holiness, and power of Jesus, so far transcending all 
that man had known or been or done, are only on the same 



MATTHEW I. 22, 23. 39 

high level as his birth. The beginning is needed, in order 
to account for that which follows. Without it, the miracles, 
and still more the terms in which Jesus constantly spoke 
of himself, would seem to us unnatural and monstrous. 

We accept, then, the account of the miraculous conception, 
not only because it is an undisputed part of the Gospel 
narratives, but because something of the kind is required 
by the higher and broader analogies of nature, and in order 
to the completeness of the Gospels themselves. 

22, 23. — Prediction of Christ's Birth. 

The account of the miraculous conception of Jesus by 
a virgin would undoubtedly appear harsh and offensive to 
the Jewish mind. To soften this impression, the writer 
introduces from one of the most honored among the Jew- 
ish prophets language which so exactly describes the case 
before them that the whole matter presents itself as a fulfil- 
ment of the ancient prediction. The passage quoted from 
Isaiah vii. 14 is taken from the Septuagint version, where 
the word napOevos, virgin, is used instead of a literal transla- 
tion of the less decisive Hebrew word, which means damsel, 
or a young and unmarried woman. This particular word, 
in the connection in which it is here given, is just the one 
to meet the Jewish feeling caused by the account of the 
birth of Jesus, and meet it all the more effectively because 
the purpose for which the passage is introduced is not 
stated. It is as if the writer, seeing how his Jewish read- 
ers were likely to be affected by an account so extraor- 
dinary, had said, " Here we may apply the words of the 
prophet, ' A virgin shall conceive and bear a son,' " — thus, 
in the very language of their sacred writings, describing 
that feature in the birth of Jesus which must have been 
most offensive to them. "We are to regard the quotation 
as primarily brought forward less for the purpose of arguing 
from a prophecy fulfilled, than to soften their prejudices by 



40 MATTHEW I. 22, 23. 

the literal application to the objectionable features of the 
case before them of language which they held sacred. 

Is the passage here quoted from Isaiah a prediction of 
the Messiah? To answer this question Ave must examine 
it in its original connection. There we find that Syria 
and Samaria have combined against Ahaz, king of Judah, 
who is greatly terrified and discouraged. The prophet an- 
nounces, as a sign to Ahaz, that a woman then unmarried 
shall bear a son, and call his name Immanuel (God-with- 
us, in token of God's presence), and before the child shall 
be old enough to know good from evil, the land whose two 
kings so terrified Ahaz should be desolate. This, as any 
one who reads the whole chapter (Noyes's Translation) 
must see, is the only application required or suggested by 

the language. 

© © 

May it not, however, in accordance with the divine in- 
tention, be taken up out of its original surroundings, and 
as a prophetic declaration find its highest and truest fulfil- 
ment in some remote and entirely different class of events ? 
" Often," says Bengel, " predictions are quoted in the New 
Testament which the original hearers were undoubtedly re- 
quired by the divine purpose to apply to events then taking 
place. But the same divine purpose, looking farther on, 
so framed the language that it might fit more exactly the 
times of the Messiah, and this divine purpose, the Apostles 
teach, we are readily to accept." "The difficulty," says 
Olshausen, (Commentary on Gospels, Matthew i. 22, 23,) 
" can be removed by our acknowledging in the Old Testa- 
ment prophecies a twofold reference to a present lower 
subject and to a future higher one. With this suppo- 
sition, Ave can everywhere adhere to the immediate, simple, 
grammatical sense of the words, and still recognize the 
quotations of the New Testament as prophecies in the full 
sense. And it belongs to the peculiar adjustment and 
arrangement of the Scripture, that the life and substance 
of the Old Testament were intended as a mirror of the 



MATTHEW I. 41 

New Testament life, and that in the person of Christ par- 
ticularly, as the representative of the New Testament, all 
the rays of the Old Testament ideas are concentrated as 
in their focus." 

We may admit the general principle here stated. The 
only objection to applying it in the case before us is the 
want of sufficient evidence that this particular passage was 
intended, either by the prophet or the evangelist, to be 
so understood. On reading carefully the whole passage 
in Isaiah, from the beginning of the seventh chapter to the 
eighth verse of the ninth chapter in Dr. Noyes's Transla- 
tion, we cannot free ourselves from the impression, that 
though the seventh chapter standing by itself might indi- 
cate no allusion to the Messiah, yet the extraordinary pas- 
sage beginning with the last verse of the eighth and reach- 
ing through the first seven verses of the ninth chapter can 
hardly be understood in any other way than as pointing 
on to the times of the Messiah ; and if so, as giving some 
countenance to those who interpret vii. 14 as in a secondary 
sense applying to the same distant event. For the opposite 
view, see Dr. Palfrey's able, ingenious, and elaborate work 
on " The Relation between Judaism and Christianity." 



NOTES. 



The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of Da- 

2 vid, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac ; and 

Isaac begat Jacob ; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. 

1. Jesus Christ] In the body truthfulness in the writers of the 

of the Gospel, where Jesus is spoken New Testament. the sou 

of as present and acting, he is never of David] i. e. the true Messiah, 

called by his official title, Christ, the " For by no more common or more 

Messiah, or the anointed, though he is proper name did the Jewish nation 

constantly so called in the Acts and point out the Messiah, than by the 

the Epistles. This is one of the son of David. See Matt. xii. 23, 

slight but unmistakable marks of xxi. *9, xxii. 42 ; Luke xviii. 38 ; 
4* 



42 MATTHEW I. 

And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar. And Phares 3 
begat Esrom ; and Esrom begat Aram ; and Aram begat 4 
Aminadab ; and Aminadab begat Naasson ; and Naasson begat 
Salmon ; and Salmon begat Booz of Rachab. And Booz be- 5 
gat Obed of Ruth. And Obed begat Jesse ; and Jesse begat 6 
David the king. And David the king begat Solomon of her 
that had been the wife of Urias. And Solomon begat Roboam ; i 
and Roboam begat Abia ; and Abia begat Asa ; and Asa be- 8 
gat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat 
Ozias ; and Ozias begat Joatham ; and Joatham begat Achaz ; 9 
and Achaz begat Ezekias ; and Ezekias begat Manages ; and 10 
Manasses begat Amon ; and Amon begat Josias ; and Josias n 
begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were 
carried away to Babylon. — And after they were brought to 12 
Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel ; and Salathiel begat Zoro- 
babel ; and Zorobabel begat Abiud ; and Abiud begat Elia- 13 
kim ; and Eliakim begat Azor ; and Azor begat Sadoc ; and 14 
Sadoc begat Achim ; and Achim begat Eliud ; and Eliud be- 15 
gat Eleazar ; and Eleazar begat Matthan ; and Matthan begat 
Jacob ; and Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of 16 

whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the 17 

generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations ; 
and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are four- 
teen generations ; and from the carrying away into Babylon 
unto Christ are fourteen generations. 

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise : when as his is 
mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came to- 
gether, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then 19 
Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make 

and everywhere in the Talmndic Manasseh, &c. 17. from 

writers."" Lightfoot. 8. and Abraham to David are fbur- 

Joram begat Ozias] Ozias was teen generations] Only thirteen 

not the son of Joram, but there are here given. One name may have 

were three kings between them, — slipped out of the account; but, as 

Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah. In Lightfoot states, literal exactness in 

tlie Syriac version edited by Dr. numbers was not regarded by the 

Cureton, these names are supplied. Jews. 19. Then Joseph 

In these genealogical tables it was her husband] It was the cus- 

not unusual to omit several genera- torn among the Jews for a man 

tions, and to reckon the legal grand- to be betrothed to a woman some 

son or great-grandson as if he were time before he actually took her 

a son. Ozias is the Greek name from her father's house to live with 

for Uzziah, as Achaz is for Ahaz, her as his wife. During this intei*- 

Ezekias for Hezekiali. Manasses for val she was considered his wife, 



MATTHEW I. 



43 



her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. 

20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the 
Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying : Joseph, thou son 
of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife ; for that 

21 which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall 
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS ; for he 

S3 shall save his people from their sins. (Xow all this was done, 
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the 



and was legally liable for any mis- 
conduct, the same as if they had 
actually come together in marriage. 
If Joseph, therefore, had instituted 
proceedings against Mary for con- 
jugal infidelity, the legal penalty, 
a disgraceful divorce or perhaps 
death, would have been exacted. 
The word translated just, dUaios, 
does not bear the meaning merciful, 
which is sometimes put upon it. A 
paraphrase closer to the original 
would be : " But Joseph, her hus- 
band, though a just man, [and there- 
fore unable to countenance what 
seemed to him a violation of the 
law,] yet not wishing to expose her 
[fo unnecessary shame or suffer- 
ing], had made up his mind to put 
her away privately ; " not, however, 
without a writing of divorce, as 
that would have been unlawful. 
For the law of divorce, see Deut. 
xxii. 23, xxiv. 1. 20. in a 

dream] This mode of divine com- 
munication, i. e. through a dream, 
i- mentioned nowhere in the New 
Testament but here and in the next 
chapter, unless we regard the dream 
of P date's wife, xxvii. 19, as of the 
same character. 21. and 

thou shalt call his name Jesus] 
i. e. Saviour, — in Hebrew, the 
same name as Joshua. for 

he shall save his people from 
their sins] The true character 
of his salvation, namely, salvation 
from sin rather than from its penal- 
ties, is here distinctly set forth. 
his people] not the Jews alone, but 
all who accept him as their Sav- 
iour. 22. that it might 
be fulfilled, &c] Iva, that. " It 
is impossible," says Alford, "to in- 
terpret iva in any other sense than 
' in order that.' The words ' all this 



was done,' and the uniform usage 
of the New Testament, in which 
iva is never used except in this 
sense, forbid any other." "We are 
surprised at so unqualified a state- 
ment. Winer, the ablest writer on 
the Grammar of the New Testa- 
ment, though he insists on design 
w< the primary and almost uniform 
meaning of the word, is yet obliged 
to allow that there are cases (e. g. 
John i. 27, iv. 34, vi. 7, xv. 8, xvi. 7 ; 
Matt xviii 6; Luke xi. 50, xvii. 2, 
&c.) where ''the original import of 
the particle of design entirely dis- 
appears." Winer, xliv. 8, c. (Mas- 
son's Tr., Am. ed. p. 354). Sophocles, 
in his learned work, " A Glossary of 
Later and Byzantine Greek," Intro- 
duct., § 95, says : " In later and By- 
zantine Greek, Iva often denotes a 
result; that is, it has the force of 
cocrre, that, so that, so as." And 
this he proves by many examples. 
Purpose or design is not then neces- 
sarily implied by the word Iva. On 
the contrary, it is also used to de- 
note result as well as purpose ; e. g. 
Luke ix. 45 : " But they understood 
not this saying, and it was hid from 
them, that [Iva, so that] they per- 
ceived it not." This passage, we 
think, furnishes the key to the pas- 
sage here, and to the same form of 
expression, Matt. ii. 15, iv. 14, xxi. 
4. xxvii. 35. In every one of these 
instances, so that is a better trans- 
lation of Iva than in order that. It 
is equally in conformity with the 
grammatical usage of the Greek 
word, and evidently better describes 
the use that is made of the prophe- 
cies. The Evangelist does not mean 
to sav, these events occurred in 
order that the words of the prophet 



44 



MATTHEW I. 



prophet, saying : " Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and 23 
shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanu- 
el ; " which, being interpreted, is, God with us.) Then Joseph, 24 
being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bid- 
den him ; and took unto him his wife, and knew her not till 25 
she had brought forth her first-born son; and he called his 
name Jesus. 



might be fulfilled," but " they 
occurred in such a manner that 
us a resiib the words of the proph- 
et were fulfilled in them." 22. 
might be fulfilled] Trk-qpwBf). 
What is meant by fulfilled? The 
literal meaning of this word is filed, 
or filled out Thus Matt. v. 17: 
" Think not that I come to destroy 
the law or the prophets : I come not 
to destroy, but to fulfil;" i. e. I 
come to carry out to its complete 
and spiritual fulfilment the law 
whose burdensome forms, once a 
help, are now a hindrance to the 
work for which it was given. To 
fulfil, in this case, is not, therefore, 
a literal fulfilment, — for in the lit- 
eral sense of the words, Jesus did 
come to destroy the law ; but it was 
to fulfil the law in a different and 
higher sense than had previously 
been thought of. The same, we 
suppose, is also true in regard to 
the prophets. Not always in a 
literal sense, but in their deepest 
and highest meaning, in the divine 
truth and life, the spiritual re- 
demption and deliverance towards 
which they were pointing, their 
words are fulfilled in Jesus. So, 
in other ways, in an inferior sense, 
even one which though literal may 
never have occurred to them, spe- 
cific woi'ds which they used may 
have been fulfilled in particular in- 
cidents connected with his life, i. e. 
may be used to describe them, as 
in the passage before us. See also 
Notes on ii. 5, 15, 17, 23 ; xxi. 
4. For a fuller exposition of the 
subject of Prophecy, see xxiv. 

23. Behold^ a virgin] 



The first clause of this sentence is 
the emphatic one. The name Em- 
manuel, which is found nowhere else 
in the New Testament, was not giv- 
en to Jesus. He was not so named 
by his parents. He never assumed 
the name himself, and was never so 
called by his disciples. It was di- 
rected to be given to a child men- 
tioned in Is. vii. 14, who was to be 
born in the reign of Ahaz, and who 
was to be to him a sign that God 
was with him. " The mere use of 
such a name." says Dr. Barnes, 
" would not prove that he had a di- 
vine nature," especially, we might 
add, when there is no evidence that 
he ever bore the name. It does, 
however, unquestionably describe 
the mission of our Saviour, in whom 
God was with us, manifesting him- 
self in the flesh, and reconciling the 
world to himself. The Jews were 
in the habit of giving significant ti- 
tles to their great men. Thus the 
original name of Joshua was Qshea 
or Saviour, and Moses, Num. xiii. 16, 
called him Jehoshua, which means 
the salvation of God. Eli means My 
God; Elijah, My God Jehovah ; Eli- 
sha, God the Saviour. 25. her 

first-born son] Tischendorf, in 
conformity with the reading in some 
of the best manuscripts, leaves out 
the word first-born ; but Alford re- 
tains it, with the remark that the 
omission " was evidently made from 
superstitious veneration for Ma- 
ry." The perpetual virginity of 
the mother of Jesus, as held by 
the Roman Catholic Church, is not 
implied or intimated here by either 
reading. 



MATTHEW II. 1-12. 4.5 



CHAPTER II. 

1-12. — Visit of the Wise Men, or Magi. 

The remarkable event in this chapter, at least that which 
gives the greatest trouble to those who would understand 
in all its bearings every particular connected with the Gos- 
pel narratives, is the visit of the Magi, or wise men, under 
the guidance of a star, or some extraordinary luminous 
appearance in the heavens. A vast deal of learning has 
been expended upon the subject Avithout coming to any 
satisfactory results. It has never been definitely ascer- 
tained who these wise men were, or what was the precise 
appearance in the heavens that brought them to Bethlehem. 
All that can be learned is, that there was at that time a 
widely extended expectation in the East of the birth, in 
that part of the world, of some one who was to have an 
extraordinary influence on human affairs. Jews, in their 
various national misfortunes, and the migrations consequent 
upon them, had mingled as permanent residents with the 
people beyond their eastern borders. They had undoubt- 
edly carried with them their religious notions, and par- 
ticularly the prophetic expectations of the Messiah, which 
had entered so deeply into the heart of the nation. Their 
ablest and wisest men would naturally be brought into 
connection with the corresponding classes whom they might 
meet in foreign lands, and in the interchange of ideas with 
one another whatever was most remarkable in the science 
or religious systems of either would become the common 
property of all. Thus there may have been in those Eastern 
regions men of devout and earnest hearts, waiting anxiously 



46 MATTHEW IT. 1-15?. 

for some new manifestation from Heaven, and for pome 
new and higher agency to go forth amid the confused and 
otherwise hopeless affairs of the world. When the fulness 
of time had come, a sign was given to them. As, to the 
shepherds at Bethlehem, who as Jews were accustomed to 
the idea of angelic ministrations, a vision of angels an- 
nounced the birth of the Messiah, so to the Magi, who 
were accustomed to look to the heavenly bodies for por- 
tents of earthly changes, a star or other brilliant light in 
heaven was given as an indication of the great event for 
which they had been waiting. Probably they had already 
fixed on Judaea, and of course on Jerusalem, the capital of 
Judaea, as the scene of the long-expected events. The 
often quoted passages from the Roman historians, Suetonius 
and Tacitus, both refer to Judaea as the place from which, 
according to expectations generally prevalent in the East, 
a man was destined, about that time, to come and obtain 
the empire of the world. Pliny not improbably had refer- 
ence to something of the same kind in calling Jerusalem 
(H. N., 1. 5, c. 15) "by far the most illustrious city, not 
only of Judaea, but of the East," since in outward splendor 
it was greatly inferior to other Eastern cities. The place, 
therefore, was fixed and known. When the unusual ap- 
pearance in the sky was seen, which the wise men ac- 
cepted as a signal to announce the birth of the expected 
deliverer, they knew at once to what place it would lead 
them. Carrying the gifts which, with their Eastern ideas 
and habits, they regarded as most worthy to be offered on 
such a visit, they hastened to Jerusalem, and made known 
the object of their journey. 

The inhabitants of Jerusalem were deeply moved by. the 
report of their coming. The hoary-headed monarch, whose 
long reign of cruelty and blood was soon to find a fitting 
termination in the horrible and loathsome disease which 
closed his miserable life, had, of course, his cruel suspicions 
excited by any reference at that time to the birth of a 



MATTHEW II. 1-12. 47 

king. Only a short time before, more than six thousand 
of the Pharisees (Josephus, Ant. 17. 2. 4) had refused the 
oath of allegiance to him, and foretold " how God had de- 
creed that his government should cease, and his posterity 
be deprived of it/' He put to death their leading men ; 
but, sitting on a throne to which as a foreigner he could 
have no rightful claim, the Idumaean Herod was not the 
man to forget "their predictions, or anything else that might 
stand in the way of his regal power and its continuance 
in his family. But it would not do to let his fears be 
known. Cloaking, therefore, his murderous intention under 
an affectation of reverence for the predicted Messiah, he 
called together the chief priests and the scribes, who as 
teachers of the law were most thoroughly versed in the 
sacred writings, and asked them where the Christ, or the 
Messiah, was to be born. 

The inquest which he made, and the manner in which 
it was received and answered, prove how general and how 
strong among the Jews the expectations of the Messiah 
were. The leading minds of the nation evidently felt 
themselves to be on the eve of the extraordinary series 
of events which had been foretold by their prophets centu- 
ries before, and which had always been kept up in the 
expectations of the people. 

Having learned the particular place of the Messiah's 
birth, the wise men set out for Bethlehem. While on their 
way, they were gladdened exceedingly by seeing again the 
star which they had seen while in the East, and which 
now showed itself in such a direction that it seemed to 
be leading them forward, till on their reaching the place 
it appeared to stand over the spot where the young child 
was. The expression, "to stand over a place," in its ap- 
plication to a heavenly body, was not foreign to ancient 
modes of speech. Josephus, in enumerating the portents 
which went before the destruction of Jerusalem, speaks 
of a comet which "stood over the city," in precisely the 
same form of words that is here applied to the star. 



48 MATTHEW II. 1-12. 

Bethlehem was a small town six or seven miles south 
of Jerusalem, but endeared to the Jewish heart by many 
precious historical associations. "Within its limits, on the 
way to Jerusalem, Rachel, the favorite wife of Jacob, had 
died and was buried. There was the scene of most of 
the affecting events recorded in the beautiful pastoral of 
Ruth. There was the residence of Jesse, and there the 
genius and the devotions of David had been called out 
while tending his father's flocks amid its hills. There, by 
the consecrating oil of the aged Samuel he had been set 
apart for the kingly office. And there, five hundred years 
later, according to Jewish traditions, but we know not on 
what authority, was the birthplace of Zerubbabel, who led 
back the captive Jews from Babylon, and rebuilt their 
temple. 

Bethlehem abounds in high hills, from which the Dead 
Sea, and the mountains beyond its eastern shore, are visi- 
ble. Some have supposed that the star which attracted 
the wise men in the East was the luminous appearance 
(the glory of the Lord shining round about them) which 
the shepherds, Luke ii. 9, saw on the night of the nativity, 
and which from those lofty hills might have been seen 
far to the eastward. But this will not account for the 
star which the Magi saw on reaching Bethlehem. Some 
have supposed that it was a comet; others, and Trench 
among them, have thought that it was a peculiar star, 
like that which shone out suddenly in Cassiopeia, Novem- 
ber 11, 1572, and which, after surpassing in apparent size 
all the fixed stars, and even the planet Jupiter, being 
sometimes distinctly seen at midday, gradually decreased, 
till, sixteen months after it was first seen, it seemed to 
go out entirely, and no traces of it have been discov- 
ered since. This star was observed and reported by 
Tycho Brahe, the most illustrious astronomical observer of 
his day. Another star, yet more remarkable, appeared in 
1604, at the same time with, and in the immediate neigh- 



MATTHEW II. 1-12. 49 

borhood of, a remarkable conjunction of the planets Saturn, 
Jupiter, and Mars, — " such a conjunction," says Trench, (in 
his " Star of the Wise Men," p. 32,) "as, occurring at rarest 
intervals, must yet have occurred as regarded the first two 
planets in 747, and all three in 748 A. U. C. ; in years, 
that is, either of them very likely to have been, and one 
of which most probably was, the true Annus Domini." 

But these speculations, though they may possibly point 
to a true solution of the phenomena in question, do not 
seem to us of much consequence. With the birth of Christ 
we are introduced into a sphere of higher than material 
agencies. From the first inception of his earthly being, in 
the overshadowing power and spirit of the Most High, to 
the time when he " was taken up " from his disciples, " and 
a cloud received him out of their sight," Jesus was at- 
tended by powers which come not usually within the cog- 
nizance of the senses, and of which our natural philoso- 
phy, limited as it is by the observation of physical facts 
through the senses, can render no adequate account. ^ They 
belong to a province of divine agencies into which we 
have not been permitted to enter far enough to be able 
to speak with any certainty of the conditions or the ex- 
tent of their influence on human affairs or the material 
universe.^ When once we are brought, as we are by the 
life of Jesus, into the realm of miraculous manifestations, 
it is idle to attempt to explain them by principles drawn 
from the narrow and unwieldy phenomena of physical sci- 
ence. 

The anniversary of the wise men offering their gifts to 
the infant Jesus has been celebrated in most Christian 
churches as the Epiphany, or manifestation of Christ to 
the Gentiles. The wise men are regarded by the Roman 
Catholic Church as kings who came from different parts 
of India, and to them has been applied the language of 
the seventy-second Psalm, " The kings of Sheba and Seba 
shall offer gifts," " and to him shall be given of the gold 
5 d 



50 MATTHEW II. 16-18. 

of Sheba." Each of the gifts also has its mystical signifi- 
cation, — the gold, a royal offering, indicating his kingly 
office, the frankincense denoting his heavenly origin, and 
the myrrh (in about a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes 
his body afterwards was laid, John xix. 39) prefiguring 
his death. These are fanciful interpretations, but probably 
they come nearer to the reverential feeling which they 
were employed to express, than any meaning that we can 
arrive at through the researches of natural history. In 
all ages of the world, especially in those Eastern regions, 
the devout and lowly in heart have delighted in offering 
up whatever was most beautiful and precious, as a token 
of inward reverence and affection. In this way gold and 
gems and precious gums and ointments became invested 
with hallowed associations, and spoke to the soul with a 
grace and charm that we in our cold climate can poorly 
comprehend. A Judas might count the pecuniary cost of 
such gifts, and wise men in our day, whose wisdom is 
wholly absorbed in estimating their outward value, may 
exclaim about the waste in matters of sentiment. But the 
Saviour has recognized in such gifts a deeper and holier 
worth than any merely pecuniary value, even though it 
were to be expended upon the poor. 

16-18. — Murder of the Children in Bethlehem. 

The account of the murder of the innocents has been 
set aside as unhistorical, because it is mentioned by no 
other historian, and because it has been thought to be 
a crime too foolish and too atrocious even for the crafty 
and cruel Herod. .But the craftiest men are often taken 
in their own craftiness. Their roundabout, underhanded, 
complicated plans for the accomplishment of what might 
be done so much more easily by some direct means, often 
fail of their purpose, and in the result appear like folly. 
"Any one," says Trench, "who is acquainted with, and 



MATTHEW II. 16-13. 51 

calls to mind, the cruel precautions of Eastern nionarchs, 
in times past and present, in regard of possible competi- 
tors for their throne, often making an entire desolation, 
even of their own kindred round them, will see in this 
what many an Eastern monarch would have done, — what 
certainly a Herod would not have shrunk from doing." 
His jealousy, which had been excited by the errand of the 
wise men, was changed to rage when he found that they 
had eluded, and, as he proudly considered it, " mocked " 
him. He determined therefore, in his wrath, to secure 
the destruction which he had designed for one of the chil- 
dren of Bethlehem by a summary act of vengeance on all. 
This was entirely in keeping with all that we know of 
Herod. " The man," says Trench, " who could put his 
wife and three of his own sons to death, who made a soli- 
tude round him by the slaughter of so many of his friends, 
who could kill, under semblance of sport, as he did, the 
vouthful high-priest, Aristobulus ; who, when he was him- 
self dying by horrible and loathsome diseases, so far from 
being softened, or owning the hand of God, which every 
one else saw therein, could devise such a devilish wicked- 
ness as that narrated by Josephus, to secure weeping and 
lamentation at his death * would have had little scruple 
in conceiving or carrying out an iniquity such as the sacred 
historian lays here to his charge." Xor would the crime 
be one of so remarkable a character that historians like 
Tacitus or Josephus would be unlikely to omit it in their 



* According to Josephus, Antiq., Lib. XYH. c. 6, s. 6-8, " It troubled him 
greatly to anticipate the joy which there would be among the Jews at 
his death; and with the purpose of turning this joy into weeping, he got 
together from every city the chief personages of the land, whom he shut 4 
up in the Hippodrome of Jericho, where he lay dying. He then obtained 
a promise from his sister Salome and her husband, that, the instant he 
expired, these all should be slain, so that, although none wept and la- 
mented him, there should yet be abundant weeping and lamentation at 
his death. His intentions were not better fulfilled than those of tyrants 
after their deaths commonly are." 



52 MATTHEW II. 6, 15. 

imperfect catalogue of his crimes. The act was one of 
no political importance. The number of children mur- 
dered has been greatly exaggerated in the popular mind. 
" From two years old, and under," in the Jewish mode 
of reckoning, probably means, downward from those who 
have entered on their second year, or, as we should say, 
under one year old. In a small place like Bethlehem 
they could hardly have numbered more than ten or fifteen, 
and these might have been put out of the way without 
any public commotion by the practised and accomplished 
agents of a tyrant like Herod. 

Quotations from the Prophets. 

G. The references to the Old Testament in this chapter are 
worthy of notice. The quotation here from Micah v. 2 
is given, not merely as an important historical fact in its 
relation to the inquiries of Herod, but as showing that 
the great Jewish council, or Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, com- 
posed of the chief priests and the men most learned in 
the law, had fixed on Bethlehem, where Jesus had just 
been born, as the birthplace of the Messiah. The ancient 
prophet, therefore, as interpreted by the highest relig- 
ious authority recognized among the Jews, accorded with 
the writer as to the place of the Messiah's birth. This 
must at the outset have had great weight with those whose 
favorable attention Matthew wished particularly to gain. 
It is not his opinion of the application of the prophecy 
that is given, but the deliberately expressed opinion of 
those whom they looked up to as their authorized teachers 
in such matters. See John vii. 42. 

15. The second quotation, " Out of Egypt have I called 
my Son" Hos. xi. 1, is given as one of the coincidences 
in language and in fact which could not but strike those 
who regarded both as sacred, and who thus through their 
religious associations would be led on in the narrative 



MATTHEW II. 17, 18. 53 

with less violent antipathies. Whether Israel, (whom God 
here calls his son,) coming up out of Egypt to receive and to 
perpetuate the knowledge of the true God through the laws 
and institutions appointed by him, was or was not held forth 
by the prophet as a type of that greater Son of God now 
coming from Egypt, who was to exercise a yet mightier 
influence in the advancement of God's kingdom through 
the earth, is of little consequence, so far as the writer's 
purpose or the pertinency of the quotation is concerned. 

17, 18. The third quotation is from Jeremiah xxxi. 15. 
Jerusalem had been taken and destroyed by Xebuzaradan. 
The Jewish nobles had been slain, and after the sons of 
the king, Zedekiah, had been murdered in his sight, his 
own eyes were put out. The people were gathered together 
in chains at Ramah, a city of Ephraim, probably about six 
miles northward from Jerusalem, whence they were to be- 
gin their wearisome and sorrowful journey towards Babylon, 
the land of their long captivity. The prophet Jeremiah, 
who had been one of the captives, and who is now pre- 
dicting the joyful return of his people from their bondage, 
contrasts their future gladness with the feelings of that 
dismal day when they were taking their departure from 
Ramah with such lamentation and bitter weeping, that it 
seemed as if Rachel, the wife of their common ancestor, 
were there, as a mother, weeping for her children, and re- 
fusing to be comforted because they were not. This strik- 
ing and beautiful figure the Evangelist has transferred to 
Bethlehem, to represent the lamentation, weeping, and great 
mourning caused by the murder of the children. The 
image of Rachel rising from her tomb and weeping there 
is rendered more appropriate by the fact that her grave 
was near Bethlehem, in the midst of those who had been 
sacrificed by that barbarous act of cruelty. Whether Jere- 
miah used language which, besides describing the sorrows 
at Ramah and the joyful return of the Jews from Babylon, 
pointed on in prophetic vision to the sorrows of Bethlehem, 

5* 



54 MATTHEW II. 23. 

and the more joyful deliverance which should thence ensue, 
is not clearly announced, though the chapter, taken as a 
whole, seems to abound in words expressive of a grandeur 
and magnificence too rich and vast to find their entire ful- 
filment in the restoration of the Jews from Babylon. There 
is nothing distinctly said in the Gospel beyond the appli- 
cation of the passage to the mourning at Bethlehem ; but 
if the Jews regarded it as being in some sense one of 
their Messianic prophecies, the few words quoted might 
carry their minds unconsciously on, from the parallel be- 
tween the sorrows at Raman and at Bethlehem, to the 
higher coincidence between the joys of the deliverance 
from the captivity at Babylon and the grander deliverance 
for which they were looking forward to the Messiah. The 
force of such allusions comes through the fine but power- 
ful associations which cannot be expressed in words, far 
more than through any direct or logical appeal to the un- 
derstanding. 

Dr. W. M. Thomson, in his work on Palestine, says (Vol. 
II. p. 503) in regard to this quotation : " The poetic accom- 
modation of Jeremiah was natural and beautiful. Of course 
it is accommodation. The prophet himself had no thought 
of Herod and the slaughter of the infants." That is, in 
his opinion (and the facts of the case, as far as known, 
certainly go to sustain him in it), the language of Jere- 
miah is here quoted, not as a prediction of this event, 
but merely as furnishing words which describe the sharp- 
ness of the sorrow caused by Herod's cruelty. 

23. The fourth apparent quotation from the Old Testa- 
ment is of a different kind. "That it might be fulfilled 
which was spoken by the prophets, ' He shall be called 
a Kazarene.' " No such passage is to be found in the Old 
Testament. Dr. Palfrey supposes that the reference is to 
Judges xiii. 5, " He shall be a Nazarite." Tischendorf 
makes the reference to Isaiah xi. 1, where the word 
translated Branch is in Hebrew Netser or Nazer. But 



MATTHEW II. 55 

the term Nazarene was one of contempt and disgrace, as 
the place, and everything belonging to it, John i. 46, were 
despised among the Jews. When, therefore, St. Matthew 
speaks of Jesus as dwelling in Nazareth, and of course 
bearing the despised name of Nazarene, he would soften 
the prejudice thus awakened, by intimating, though in ob- 
scure terms, that even thus he was fulfilling in himself 
what had been spoken by the prophets of the Messiah, as 
one despised and rejected of men. The form of speech, 
" by the prophets," is unlike that which occurs anywhere 
else in the Gospels when a quotation is made from a par- 
ticular writer, and of itself would seem to imply that an 
idea expressed by different prophets, rather than the spe- 
cific language of any one writer, was what was referred 
to as fulfilled in Jesus, when he was called by that mean 
and offensive name. This is the interpretation given by 
Kuinoel, Olshausen, Trench, and others, and seems to us 
more natural than any other. But we are too far re- 
moved from the times and habits of the writer, and those 
for whom he wrote, to speak with certainty of allusions 
which appealed so delicately to their finer sensibilities 
through the associations growing, out of their religious 
culture 



NOTES. 

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judasa, in the days 

of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east 

2 to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the 

1. Herod the king] " Herod the days after he had put to death his 

Great, son of Antipater, an Idumaean son Antipater, in the seventieth year 

hy an Arabian mother, made king of his age and the thirty-eighth of 

of Judaea on occasion of his having his reign, and the 750th year of 

fled to Eome, being driven from his Rome. The events here related 

tetrarchy by the pretender Antigo- took place a short time before his 

nus, and confirmed in his office by death." Alford. 2. Where 

Augustus Caesar after the battle of is he that is born King of the 

Actium. He died miserably^ five Jews ?] " There had prevailed in 



56 



MATTHEW II. 



Jews ? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to 
worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, 
he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him ; and when he 
had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people 
together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. 
And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judsea ; for thus it 
is written by the prophet : " And thou, Bethlehem, in the land 
of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda ; for 
out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people 
Israel." Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise 
men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared, 
and he sent them to Bethlehem, and said : Go and search dili- 
gently for the young child ; and when ye have found him, 
bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. 
When they had heard the king, they departed. And, lo, the 



all the East an ancient and con- 
stant expectation that, according to 
the fates, men coining from 'Judasa 
should rule the world,' rerum jioti- 
vcntur." Suetonius, Vesp. c. 4. 
" Many had been persuaded that it 
was contained in the ancient writ- 
ing? of the priests, that the East 
should prevail, and that men com- 
ing from Judaea should rule the 
world." Tacitus, Hist. V. 13. 

to worship him] " To do 
homage to him in the Eastern fash- 
ion of prostration." Alford. 
2. Some readers may be interested 
in the following statement, which is 
borrowed from astronomical calcu- 
lations, by Alford: — "In the year 
of Rome 747, on the 20th of May, 
there was a conjunction of Jupiter 
and Saturn in the twentieth degree 
of the constellation Pisces, close to 
the first point of Aries, which was 
the part of the heavens noted in as- 
trological science as that in which 
the signs denoted the greatest and 
most noble events. On the 27th of 
Oe.-ober, in the same year, another 
conjunction of the same planets took 
place, in the sixteenth degree of 
Pieces ; and on the 12th of Novem- 
ber a third, in the fifteenth degree 
of the same sign. On these last two 
occasions the planets were so near, 
that an ordinary eye would regard 



them as one star of surpassing 
brightness. Supposing the magi to 
have seen the Ji?-st of these conjunc- 
tions, they saw it actually ' in the 
east ; ' for on the 20th of May it 
would rise shortly before the sun. 
If they then took their journey, and 
arrived at Jerusalem in a little more 
than five months, (the journey from 
Babylon took Ezra four months, see 
Ezra vii. 9,) if they performed the 
route from Jerusalem to Bethlehem 
in the evening, as is implied, the No- 
vember conjunction in the fifteenth 
degree of Pisces would be before 
them in the direction of Bethlehem, 
coming to the meridian about eight 
o'clock, P. M. These circumstan- 
ces would seem to form a remarka- 
ble coincidence with the history in 
our text." 4. And when 

he [Herod] had gathered all the 
chief priests and scribes of the 
people together] This was prob- 
ably a meeting of the Jewish San- 
hedrim, which consisted of seventy- 
one members, and was at that time 
the highest religious tribunal known 
among the Jews, being composed of 
priests, Levites, and Israelites. The 
scribes were the teachers and inter- 
preters of the law. 6. And 
thou, Bethlehem] This free ver- 
sion of Micah v. 2 is given as the 
report or ansAver of the Sanhedrim 



MATTHEW II. 



57 



star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came 

10 and stood over where the young child was. When they saw 

11 the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy ; and when 
they were come into the house, they saw the young child with 
Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him ; and 
when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto 

12 him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being- 
warned of God in a dream that they should not return to 
Herod, they departed into their own country another way. 

13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord 
appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying : Arise, and take the 
young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou 
there until I bring thee word ; for Herod will seek the young 

n child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child 
15 and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt ; and was 
there until the death of Herod ; that it might be fulfilled which 
was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying : " Out of 
ic Egypt have I called my Son." Then Herod, when he saw 
that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth ; 
and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethle- 
hem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and 
under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired 
IT of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by 
is Jeremy the prophet, saying: "In Rama was there a voice 
heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning ; Rachel 
weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because 

19 they are not." But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel 

20 of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying : 
Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into 
the land of Israel ; for they are dead which sought the young 

21 child's life. And he arose, and took the young child and his 

22 mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard 



to Herod. 9. the star] " If 

it is to be understood as standing 
over the house, and thus indicating 
to the magi the position of the ob- 
ject of tbeir search, the whole inci- 
dent must be regarded as miracu- 
lous. But this is not necessarily 
implied, even if the words of the 
text be literally understood ; and in 
a matter like astronomy, where pop- 



ular language is so universally in- 
accurate, and the Scriptures so 
generally use popular language, it 
is surely not the letter, but the 
spirit of the narrative with which 
Ave are concerned." Alford. 

14. and departed into 
Egypt] where, at no very great 
distance from Jerusalem, and with- 
in a Roman province, he would be 



58 



MATTHEW IT. 



that Archelaus did reign in Judaea, in the room of his father 
Herod, he was afraid to go thither; notwithstanding, being 
warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of 
Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth ; 23 



safely beyond Herod's jurisdiction. 
*22. Archelaus] succeed- 
ed his father, and at first claimed 
to be a king; but he never had the 
title of king confei-red upon him bv 
the Roman Emperor. In the ninth 
year of his government he was re- 
moved from office. 23. And 
he came and dwelt in a city 
called Nazareth] Had we only 
this Gospel, we should certainly 
infer that Joseph and Mary had 
previously lived in Bethlehem, and 
now went into Galilee to reside as 
in a strange place, while Luke (ii. 4, 
39) speaks of them as coming up 
from Nazareth to Bethlehem imme- 
diately before the birth of Jesus, 
and returning again to Nazareth, ap- 
parently without any delay after 
the rites of purification had been 
performed, which, according to the 
law, would be forty days after his 
birth. How is this account of 
Luke's to be reconciled with Mat- 
thew's account of the flight into 
Egypt, which covered the whole 
time between the birth of Jesus and 
the death of Herod ? It is impossi- 
ble to determine how long a time 
that was, because it cannot be de- 
termined with certainty in what 
year Jesus was born. But on any 
hypothesis it is difficult to recon- 
cile the accounts of the two Evan- 
gelists. The magi could hardly 
have reached Bethlehem before the 
purification in the temple; for the 
remarkable circumstances connect- 
ed with that event (Luke ii. 22-39) 
must in that case have attracted the 
now awakened and jealous atten- 
tion of Herod. Both the visit of the 
magi and the residence in Egypt 
then probably occurred after the 
purification and before the return 
to Nazareth. But if Luke had been 
aware of these events, would he 
have omitted all notice of them? 
Does his account, " And when they 
had performed all things according 
to the law of the Lord, they re- 



turned into Galilee, to their own city, 
Nazareth," leave room for the in- 
tervening residence in Egypt? The 
subject will be more fully discussed 
when we come to treat of the Gos- 
pel of Luke. In the mean time, it is 
well to remember, that, in these very 
brief and rapid sketches of events 
in our Saviour's life, there must, 
from the very character of the nar- 
rative, be abrupt transitions from 
one event to others which occurred 
at a wholly different time, and un- 
der entirely different circumstances. 
The Gospel of Matthew or Luke is 
not much longer than a eulogy on 
some eminent man. One Evange- 
list, in his brief sketch, having his 
mind particularly interested in one 
class of facts connected with the birth 
of Jesus, might speak of the visit of 
the magi, the cruelty of Herod, and 
the consequent flight to Egypt, while 
another might select a wholly dif- 
ferent class of facts, and speak of 
the annunciation, the journey from 
Nazareth to Bethlehem, the vision 
seen by the shepherds, the circum- 
cision, the purification, and the sub- 
sequent removal back to Nazareth, 
without giving any ground to infer 
that either was ignorant of what 
the other has recorded, or that be- 
cause one has related one class of 
events, therefore the other class of 
events, which purports to have oc- 
curred at nearly the same time, could 
not have taken place. Both the 
Evangelists together fail to relate 
a hundredth part of the incidents 
which interested those then living 
in Palestine within two years of the 
birth of Jesus. Nothing"is more un- 
safe than to infer a contradiction 
from a want of coincidence in two 
such narratives ; for in each of them, 
from a great abundance of facts and 
sayings, — so many, says John, that 
the world could not contain them if 
they should all be written, — the 
writer makes such selections as may 
best suit his purpose, and uses them, 



MATTHEW II. 



59 



that It might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, 
He shall be called a Nazarene. 



generally without indicating the 
precise time to which they relate. 
We shall find, as we go on, that it 
will not do to take any one of the 
Gospels as a precise chronological 
statement of events ; still less as an 
account intended to embraee all the 
facts belonging to any one period of 
our Saviour's life. As respects the 



birth of Jesus, Mark and John say 
nothing; Matthew relates one series 
of events intimately connected, and 
Luke another, while both, except- 
ing a single incident, Luke ii. 41 - 
52, pass over the whole period of his 
childhood and youth till he was 
about thirty years of age. 



60 MATTHEW III. 



CHAPTER III. 

John the Baptist. 

There was, as we have already seen, among the Jews, a 
general but indefinite expectation of the Messiah, which had 
only been strengthened by their national vicissitudes and 
misfortunes. While they were scattered through distant 
lands, mingling with other nations, and in some measure 
adopting their philosophical ideas, the particular form which 
this expectation assumed varied with the place of their 
sojourn and their individual habits of thought. " Each 
region," says Milman, " each rank, each sect : the Baby- 
lonian, the Egyptian, the Palestinian, the Samaritan ; the 
Pharisee, the lawyer, the zealot, arrayed the Messiah in 
those attributes which suited his own temperament." Some 
•one was needed in Judrea to give consistency to these vary- 
ing expectations, and especially to give them new intensity 
and power by announcing as already at hand that kingdom 
•of God to which they had been pointing forward through so 
many centuries. This was the office assigned to the Bap- 
tist. He was not a follower of Christ, but only the herald 
to announce his coming. It was not given to him as it was 
to the disciples of Jesus, (Matt. xiii. 11,) "to know the 
mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven," but " the least in the 
kingdom of God," (Luke vii. 28,) i. e. the humblest Chris- 
tian, was declared by Jesus to be " greater than he." We 
must, therefore, be careful not to ascribe to him ideas which 
could be entertained only by those who had learned them 
from the Messiah himself. 

He had been brought up among the mountains of Judaea, 



MATTHEW III. 61 

about as far to the south as Jesus was to the north from 
Jerusalem. His habits of life were probably those of a 
religious recluse, with a conviction borne in upon him that 
he had been born and set apart for some great and holy 
purpose. Like the mighty prophet Elijah of old, he was 
rude in dress, simple in diet, and severe in speech, dwelling 
in religious thought and prayer amid the solitudes of nature. 
When the time had at length arrived, he came down from 
the mountains to the valley of the Jordan. He announced 
the approaching kingdom of Heaven in terms of startling 
decision and severity. He warned men to flee from the 
wrath that was impending over the ungodly, and to prepare 
themselves, by change of heart and newness of life, to meet 
the Messiah at his coming. Crowds from all quarters gath- 
ered round him. Even Pharisees and Sadducees came to 
witness his . baptism. He sees their national delusion in 
supposing that, because they are descended from Abraham, 
they must therefore be admitted into the Messiah's kingdom. 
This new kingdom, he tells them, is not thus easily to be 
entered. " Ye generation of vipers, who hath warned you 
to flee from the coming wrath ? Bring forth then fruit 
worthy of repentance, and do not think to say, ' We have 
Abraham for our father.' From these stones [that are 
lying round us] God can raise up children, or successors, to 
Abraham." And then, to impress them, with a sense of 
the urgency of the occasion, as if not a moment were to be 
lost, he exclaims, with vehement and terrible earnestness, 
that the axe even now is lying at the root of the tree, and 
every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is cut [chopped] 
down and cast into the fire. " I, indeed," he continues, 
" baptize you with water unto repentance," receiving none 
to my baptism but those who repent, and confess their sins ; 
" but here is coming one mightier than I, who will subject 
you to a more searching ordeal, baptizing you, not in water 
alone, but in the holy spirit [wind] and fire," " for," he 
says, continuing the same thought still under the imagery 



62 MATTHEW III. 

of wind and fire, " with his winnowing instrument in his 
hand, he will clear up his threshing-floor, gathering the 
wheat into his storehouse and burning the chaff with un- 
quenchable fire." 

Some have supposed that John here, by these different 
kinds of baptism, describes the different degrees of spiritual 
attainment in his disciples and those of the Messiah. " Bap- 
tism with water," says Olshausen, " implies repentance, and 
purification from sin ; baptism with the spirit refers to the 
inward cleansing in faith, (the Holy Spirit being conceived 
of as the regenerating principle,) and, lastly, baptism with 
fire expresses the glorification of the regenerated higher 
life into its own peculiar nature." But these ideas, however 
familiar they may be to us, belong, in the higher develop- 
ment of our Christian experience, to a plane of spiritual life 
and thought which we have reason to suppose that John, 
who was only the herald or forerunner of Christ, had never 
reached. As the humblest disciple of Jesus, he " who is 
least in the kingdom of God," knows more of its interior life 
and economy than he who was not only ." a prophet, but 
more than a prophet," under the old dispensation, it would 
be a serious anachronism to assign to John, at that time, so 
profound a knowledge of the religion of Jesus. The same 
remark applies also, though with less force, to the interpre- 
tations by which the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire 
are referred to the tongues of flame on the day of Pentecost 
(Acts ii. 3, compared with Acts i. 5, xix. 2, 8). For this 
would be to ascribe to the Baptist, before the ministry of Je- 
sus had begun, a degree of knowledge which the disciples of 
Jesus did not have till some time after its closfr. So also the 
explanation of the baptism of fire by a reference to the 
" much tribulation " of Acts xiv. 22, and " the fire " (1 Cor. 
iii. 13) which "shall try every man's work, of what sort it 
is," implies in John a sort of knowledge which we have no 
reason to suppose that he possessed. Besides, any one of 
these interpretations interferes with the straightforward, 
direct, and vehement earnestness of his speech. 



MATTHEW III. 63 

Why did Jesus come, to be baptized by John? The 
question is one which we cannot fully and confidently 
answer. But as John had been raised up to announce 
the immediate coming of the Messiah, and by his preach- 
ing had excited such an expectation in the minds of thou- 
sands, the object of all this movement on the part of the 
Baptist would be lost to the cause, unless his predictions 
should in some way be connected with Jesus. Jesus, there- 
fore, in the fulness of time, came to John at the Jordan. 
Whether they had previously had any personal acquaint- 
ance with each other is not quite certain. Though their 
mothers were related, the two families lived in the opposite 
extremities of Palestine, and probably their only oppor- 
tunities of meeting would be in Jerusalem, at the great 
religious festivals. The extraordinary circumstances at- 
tending their birth would naturally draw their parents to- 
gether. The probability, therefore, is that they had had some 
personal knowledge of each other, and that the expression 
of the Baptist (John i. 33), "I knew him not," means that 
he did not till then know him as the Messiah. But 
in order that the testimony of John should have its due 
weight with the people, it was important that it should 
come from him, not as a personal friend and companion 
of Jesus, but as an independent witness and prophet of 
God. 

John, therefore, was brought up under the old dispensa- 
tion, having only a slight personal acquaintance with Jesus, 
and came forth, as he was moved by the spirit of God, to 
herald the coming of that kingdom in which the law and 
the prophetsv alike were to find their fulfilment. Like 
Moses, he was to lead the people out of their ancient 
bondage through the wilderness to the very borders of 
the promised kingdom, seeing it near, pointing it out to 
his followers, indicating and setting apart their future and 
greater leader, but himself, for wise and weighty reasons, 
not permitted to enter within its borders. As he was the 



64 MATTHEW III. 

last, and in some respects the greatest, of the prophets 
belonging to the ancient dispensation, Jesus, who submitted 
to all the requirements of that dispensation, came to re- 
ceive from him its solemn sanctions, and it has been thought 
in the very place where Joshua, or Jesus (for the names 
are the same), led the tribes of Israel on dry ground 
through the Jordan, there he went down to its baptismal 
waters, and in his own person consecrated forever the 
rite which through all coming ages should stand as the 
sign, if not the seaL of admission into his kingdom. As 
he went up from the water, and stood (Luke iii. 21) pray- 
ing, his countenance we may suppose radiant with the 
emotions of the hour, behold, the heavens were opened 
to him, and he perceived the spirit of God, pure and 
peaceful as a dove (the sacred bird of Syria), descend- 
ing, and (John i. 32) resting upon him ; and behold, a 
voice from the heavens saying, 'This is my son, the 
beloved, in whom I am well pleased." 

When John saw Jesus, he was awed by him as in 
the presence of a superior being, and shrunk from ad- 
ministering to him the rite of baptism. He felt his own 
inferiority. The " former things " to which he belonged 
were now to be fulfilled by passing away, through a species 
of dissolution, into the higher kingdom which is to be in- 
augurated. With the modest humility which becomes a 
true servant of God, he submits to the request of Christ, 
and in so doing receives from heaven the proof that the 
Messiah has come. He sees, that, like the star which 
has been the harbinger of a fairer day, he must decrease, 
(John iii. 30,) while the Sun of Righteousness which he 
has announced as rising upon the world must increase 
in brightness and power. In that new kingdom no office 
was assigned to him. It was appointed in the counsels 
of Infinite Wisdom that he should stand apart as the ap- 
pointed herald, but not be a follower of the Messiah. 

From that day the ministry of John was in fact ended. 



MATTHEW III. 



65 



" For this purpose," he said, (John i. 31,) " am I come 
baptizing with water, that he should be made manifest 
in Israel," and in proportion as he is made known must 
the Baptist retire before him. "I am," he said, (John i. 
23,) " the voice of one crying in the wilderness," and now 
that voice having waked the solitudes of Judaea, and turned 
the expectations of the nation towards the Messiah, re- 
cedes again into silence. There is something very touch- 
ing and very beautiful in the readiness with which this 
great man, so honored and reverenced among all the people 
as a prophet of God, humbled himself before Jesus from 
the first moment of his appearance. And, in all the cir- 
cumstances of our Saviour's coining, in the blended dignity 
and humility which marked his personal deportment, and 
the tokens of divine love and approbation which came 
down to him from heaven, we see how befitting the work 
which had been given him to do was this his first entrance 
on the field of his labors. $/ 

'of 



NOTES. 

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilder- 
2 ness of Judaea, and saying : Repent ye, for the kingdom of 



1. In those days] An indefinite 
expression nearly corresponding to 
our at length, or in the course of 
time. In this case it refers to what 
took place nearly thirty years after 
the events spoken of in the para- 
graph next preceding it. In Ex- 
odus ii. 11 it is used as a form of 
introduction to events which oc- 
curred forty years after those de- 
scribed in the previous sentence. 
preaching] proclaim- 
ing as a herald who goes before to 
announce the coming of a king. 
" When Ibrahim Pasha proposed to 
visit certain places in Lebanon, the 
emeers and sheiks sent forth a gen- 
6* 



eral proclamation, somewhat in the 
style of Isaiah's exhortation, to all 
the inhabitants to assemble along 
the proposed route, and prepare the 
way before him. The same was 
done in 1845 on a grand scale, when 
the present Sultan visited Brusa. 
The stones were gathered out, crook- 
ed places straightened, and rough 
ones made level and smooth." The 
Land and the Book, Thomson, II. 
106. Sometimes they sent forward 
heralds to announce their approach, 
and to require the people to make 
this preparation for their coming. 
in the wilderness] 
not strictly a desert, but compara- 

E 



QQ 



MATTHEW III. 



hearen is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the 
prophet Esaias, saying, "The voice of one crying in the wil- 
derness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths 
straight." And the same John had his raiment of camel's 
hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins ; and his meat was 



tively an uninhabited region round 
the Jordan. 2. Repent 

ye] The Greek word literally re- 
fers to a change of mind or thought, 
and implies a change so deep that it 
reaches the very fountain of thought, 
and therefore touches the inmost 
motives which give their shape and 
coloring to the life. Dr. Campbell 
and Mr. Norton translate it, Reform ; 
but this to most minds conveys the 
impression of an external change 
rather than of one which, beginning 
in the soul, works outward through 
the conduct, till mind and heart and 
life alike are transformed. The word 
Repent is confined too exclusively to 
the inward feeling of sorrow, wliich 
is only the beginning of the change 
that is required. 2. the 

kingdom of heaven] literally, 
the kingdom of the heavens, — a form 
of expression used only by Matthew, 
the other Evangelists using the term 
kingdom of God. Some stress has 
been laid, and perhaps not without 
reason, on this expression as indi- 
cating a plurality of heavens, corre- 
sponding to the many mansions in 
his Father's house which Jesus 
speaks of (John xiv. 2), and adapted 
to the sons of God in the different 
stages of their spiritual progress. 
The idea of the kingdom of Heaven 
or kingdom of God as synonymous 
with the Messiah's kingdom was 
probably familiar to the Jews, bor- 
rowed, perhaps, from passages like 
Daniel ii. 44. It is used in the New 
Testament with different shades of 
meaning to indicate the Messiah's 
kingdom: 1. as an inward principle 
of life in the soul (the kingdom of 
God is within you, Luke xvii. 21); 
2. as a divine power extending 
through the world and changing 
its whole character (a little leaven 
which leaveneth the whole mass, 
Matt. xii. 33); 3. as an organized 
polity, like a net cast into the sea, 



Matt. xiii. 47, 48, and taking into 
itself the good and the bad till they 
shall at length be separated in the 
end of the world ; 4. as the Messiah's 
kingdom when it shall. take the place 
of the Jewish dispensation after the 
destruction of Jerusalem, Luke ix. 
27; or, 5. as it shall appear in its 
consummation amid the brighter 
glories of a higher world, when the 
Son of man shall sit on the throne 
of his glory, Matt. xxv. 31, when it 
shall be fulfilled in the kingdom of 
God, Luke xxii. 16, or when through 
much tribulation we shall enter the 
kingdom of God, Acts xiv. 22. 
These different meanings melt in- 
sensibly into one another. We have 
no reason to suppose that John the 
Baptist understood the expression 
at all in its higher signification, but 
only as indicating an outward, visi- 
ble kingdom, founded on the prin- 
ciples of righteousness, but exercis- 
ing an earthly authority and power. 
3. For this is he 
that was spoken of by the 
prophet Esaias] The quotation 
is from the Septuagint. The whole 
passage should be read (Isaiah xl.) 
in order to understand the effect 
intended by the introduction of a 
few of the words here. The Bap- 
tist, in John i. 23, describes himself 
by these same words. 4. his 

raiment of camel's hair, and a 
leathern girdle about his loins] 
The Jews expected Elijah as the 
forerunner of the Messiah, and this 
description corresponds to that of 
Elijah in 2 Kings i. 8, " He [Elijah] 
was an hairy man, and girt Arith a 
girdle of leather about his loins." 
Elijah was intimately associated in 
the Jewish mind with the Messiah 
as his forerunner, and Jesus himself 
xvii. 10 - 13, distinctly declares that 
this expected Elijah is none other 
than John the Baptist. The proph- 
ecy which probably gave rise to the 



MATTHEW III. 



67 



5 locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, 

6 and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan ; and 

7 were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But 
when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his 
baptism, he said unto them : generation of vipers, who hath 

s warned you to flee from the wrath to come ? Bring forth 



expectation is a remarkable one, 
and, from its place at the very end 
of the Jewish Scriptures, Malachi 
iv. 5, 6, must have attracted par- 
ticular attention: "Behold, I will 
send you Elijah the prophet before 
the coming of the great and dreadful 
day of the Lord, and he shall turn 
the heart of the fathers to the chil- 
dren, and the heart of the children 
to their fathers, lest I come and smite 
the earth with a curse." This de- 
scribes the influence of John in 
preaching his doctrine of repent- 
ance, and thus preparing the hearts 
of the people, parents and children, 
for the coming of Christ. and 

his meat was locusts and wild 
honey] Locusts, first boiled and 
then dried in the sun, and carried 
like parched corn in bags, are still 
sometimes used as an article of food 
by the Bedouin on the frontiers of 
Syria. The insects were grasshop- 
pers, and not locusts, and should be 
so read Avherever the word occurs 
in the Bible. Jaeger. The wild 
honey was not, as some have thought, 
a vegetable product exuding from 
trees, but honey made by wild bees. 
" Wild honey," says Thomson, "is 
still gathered in large quantities from 
trees in the wilderness, and from 
rocks in the wadies, just where the 
Baptist sojourned, and where he 
came preaching the baptism of re- 
pentance." 6. And 
were baptized of him in Jor- 
dan] " When men were admitted 
as proselytes, three rites were per- 
fcn-med, — circumcision, baptism, 
and oblation ; when women, two, — 
baptism and oblation. The whole 
families of proselytes, including in- 
fants, _ were baptized." Alford. 
" Baptism, symbolical or ceremonial 
washing, such as the Mosaic law 
prescribed as a sign of moral reno- 
vation, and connected with the sac- 



rificial types of expiation. It was 
from these familiar and significant 
ablutions that John's baptism was 
derived, and not from the practice 
of baptizing prosefytes, the antiqui- 
ty of which as a distinct rite is dis- 
puted." Alexander on Mark. "It 
was in itself," says Stanley, "no 
new ceremony. Ablutions,' in the 
East, have always been more or less 
a part of religious worship, easily 
performed and always welcome. 
Every synagogue, if possible, was 
by the side of a stream or spring; 
every mosque, still, requires a foun- 
tain or basin for lustrations in its 
court." 7. Pharisees 

and Sadducees] Josephus repre- 
sents these two sects as originating 
about one hundred and fifty years 
before Christ. They overlaid the 
law and the prophets by their tra- 
ditions, and, like all sects who trust 
to forms and traditions, they neg- 
lected the spirit of their religion, and 
became remai-kable for their super- 
stition and hypocrisy. They had 
great influence, as their represent- 
atives in all ages have among their 
own people, and, like their succes- 
sors now, were the most malignant 
enemies of Jesus, as he appeared in 
the simplicity of his instructions 
and the purity of his life. The Sad- 
ducees, who were supposed to be 
so called from a Hebrew word, 
meaning righteousness, rejected all 
tradition, and, though it was not 
originally one of their distinguishing 
features, yet in our Saviour's time 
they denied the reality of a future 
life. By confining themselves to a 
bare, literal, moral conformity to 
the law of Moses, they lost all spirit- 
ual life, and with it all belief in 
spiritual influences or spiritual be- 
ings. They are the type of the car- 
nal unbelief which prevails among 
the philosophical classes, and those 



68 



MATTHEW III. 



therefore fruits meet for repentance, and think not to say with- 9 
in yourselves, We have Abraham to our father ; for I say un- 
to you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children 
unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of 10 
the trees ; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good 
fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize n 
you with water, unto repentance ; but he that cometh after 
me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear ; 
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 
Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly -purge his 12 
floor ; and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn 
up the chaff with unquenchable fire. $L, 

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan, unto John, to be 13 



whose thoughts are " bound up in 
a materialistic prosperity." 
11. The Holy Ghost] The word 
translated Ghost or Spirit means 
also air or wind, and the comparison 
is between water with which John 
baptized and the more searching 
elements wind and fire, by which 
the Messiah should try his follow- 
ers. Whose shoes, 
&c] In the Talmud it is said, 
" Every office a servant will do for 
his master, a scholar should perform 
for his teacher, except loosing his 
sandal thong." Milman's History of 
Christianity, Book I. Chap. 3. The 
office lower than that of a disciple 
to the Messiah, which the Baptist 
speaks of as still too high for him, is 
used to indicate, not only his rever- 
ence for that exalted being, but also 
his consciousness of the remarkable 
fact, that, in the purposes of the 
Almighty, it was not appointed for 
him to hold even the lowest place 
in the new kingdom which he had 
announced. According to Lightfoot, 
it was the token of a slave having 
become his master's property, to 
loose his shoe, to tie the same, or to 
carry the necessary articles for him 
to the bath. and with 
fire] " The double symbolic refer- 
ence of fire, elsewhere found, e. g. 
Mark ix. 49, as purifying the good 
and consuming the evil, is hardly to 
be pressed into the interpretation of 
fire in this vex - se. the prophecy here 



being solely of that higher and more 
perfect baptism to which that of 
John was a mere introduction." 
Alford. 12. Whose 

fa:i] the winnowing shovel with 
which the grain Avhen thrashed was 
tossed into the air so as to separate 
the chaff from the wheat. 
he will thoroughly purge his 
floor] The threshing-floor may 
sometimes have been a large, flat 
rock, but usually it was a level spot 
of earth trodden or rolled smooth 
and hard. The grain was beaten 
out by flails, or trodden out by , 
oxen. 13. to Jordan] 

" It was the one river of Palestine, 

— sacred in its recollections, — abun- 
dant in its waters; and yet, at the 
same time, the river, not of cities, 
but of the wilderness, — the scene 
of the preaching of those who dwelt 
not in king's palaces, nor wore soft 
clothing. On the banks of the rush- 
ing stream the multitudes gathered, 

— the priests and scribes from Jeru- 
salem, down the pass of Adummin; 
the publicans from Jericho on the 
south, and the Lake of Gennesareth 
on the north ; the soldiers on their 
way from Damascus to Petra, 
through the Ghor, in the war with 
the Arab chief Hareth, the peasants 
from Galilee, with One from Naza- 
reth, through the opening of the 
plain of Esdraelon. The tall ' reeds y 
or canes in the jungle waved, 
' shaken by the wind ' ; the pebbles 



MATTHEW III. 



69 



14 baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying: I have need 

15 to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ? And Jesus 
answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now ; for thus it 
becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. 

16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of 
the water ; and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he 
saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting up- 

17 on him. And, lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 



of the bare clay hills lay around, to 
which the Baptist pointed as capa- 
ble of being transformed into ' the 
children of Abraham ' ; at their feet 
rushed the refreshing stream of 
the never-failing river. There be- 
gan that sacred rite, which has 
since spread throughout the world, 
through the vast baptistries of the 
southern and Oriental churches, 
gradually dwindling to the little 
fonts of the north and Avest ; the ' 
plunges beneath the water dimin- 
ishing to the feAV drops which, by 
a wise exercise of Christian free- 
dom, are now in most churches the 
sole representative of the full stream 
of the Descending River." Stanley. 
to be baptized of 
him] We know too little of the 
significance of this rite at that time 
among the Jews, and especially as 
it was administered by John, to un- 
derstand why Jesus should himself 
have observed it. In addition to 
what Ave have suggested in our gen- 
eral remarks on the subject, it may 
also be true, as Alford says, that he 
did it " as bearing the infirmities 
and carrying the soitoavs of man- 
kind, and thus beginning here the 
triple baptism of Avater, fire, and 
blood, tAvo parts of Avhich Avere iioav 
accomplished, and of the third of 
which he himself speaks, Luke xii. 
50, and the beloved Apostle, 1 John 
v. 8, Avhere spirit stands for /re." 
Great stress is laid on the manner 
in Avhich Jesus Avas baptized, Avheth- 
er it vras by immersion, effusion, or 
sprinkling. The coming up out of 
the ivater seems to imply that he 
Avent doAvn into the water, Avhere he 
was either immersed, or had Avater 



poured upon him Avhilc he stood in 
the river near its bank. We have 
no certain knoAvledge on the sub- 
ject. If it had been important Ave 
probably should have had it. But 
why should his precise mode of 
baptism be of consequence any more 
than the particular garment" Avhich 
he then Avore ? If it is essential to 
baptism that Ave should enter the 
Avater precisely as he did, why is it 
not essential to the Lord's Supper 
that in partaking of it avc should 
recline upon a couch as he did? It 
is foreign to the Avhole tone of his 
instructions to lay any stress on the 
external and incidental adjuncts of 
a form. 15. Suffer it to 

be so now] Let it be so for the 
present, just noAV. It is fitting that 
Ave both of us should fulfil all right- 
eousness, i. e. all requirements of 
the laAV. For the present, therefore, 
permit me as the fulfiller of the law 
to receiA r e this rite Avhile you as its 
agent administer it. 16. 

and he saw the Spirit of God 
descending like a dove] This 
may have been a mental A^ision, 
open to the spiritual perceptions of 
Jesus and of the Baptist, John i. 32, 
or it may have been the actual bod- 
ily shape of a doA'-e appearing to 
them as symbolical of the pure and 
peaceful spirit of God and of him who 
that day Avas first publicly set apart 
for his great and sacred work. We 
should translate the verse as folloAvs : 
And the moment thai; Jesus, being 
baptized, was gone up out of the 
water, lo, the heavens Avere opened 
to him, and he saw the spirit of God, 
descending like a dove, coming upon 
him. 



70 MATTHEW IV. 1-11. 



CHAPTER IY. " 

1-11. — The Temptation in the Wilderness. 

We suppose that very few able scholars of our day 
regard the account of the Temptation as an account of 
events which actually took place according to the letter of 
the narrative. Some — Schleiermacher, for example — look 
upon it as a parable by which Jesus would impress most 
important lessons on the minds of his disciple?. "Three 
leading maxims of Christ/' he says, in his Critical Essay 
on the Gospel of St. Luke, "for himself and for those 
who were invested by him with extraordinary powers for 
the promotion of his kingdom, are therein expressed: the 
first, to perform no miracle for his own advantage, even 
under the most pressing circumstances ; the second,; never 
to undertake, in the hope of extraordinary Divine aid, 
anything which, like the dropping from the pinnacle of 
the temple, as it does not lie in the natural course of 
things, would be merely prodigious ;> lastly, never,* though 
the greatest immediate advantage were by that means 
attainable, to enter into fellowship with the wicked, and 
still less into a state of dependence upon them ; and 
Christ could not express himself more strongly against 
the opposite mode of conduct than by ascribing it to Satan. 

In such a sense, then, Christ delivered this parable 

to his disciples." 

These undoubtedly are in part the lessons taught by 
the temptation in the wilderness. But it is doing violence 
to the language and spirit of the narrative to interpret 
it as applying in no way to the inward personal expe- 



MATTHEW IV. 1-11. 71 

rience of Jesus. Jesus, "conceived of the Holy Spirit," 
had nevertheless been subjected to the mental as well as 
physical conditions of our human nature, and, instead of 
attaining at once, by reason of his divine origin, to " all 
the fulness of God," grew not only "in stature," bat "in 
wisdom, and in favor with God and man." This sense 
of intimate union with God must have grown up in him 
with the unfolding consciousness of inward life and power, 
and have been dependent in some measure on the influ- 
ences which usually affect our human sensibilities. In 
taking upon himself our infirmities, he was of course sub- 
ject in some degree .to our fl actuations of feeling, and 
exposed, as we find in his history, to periods of unusual 
elevation or depression of spirit. Though living "in the 
bosom of the Father," " not alone because the Father was 
with him," yet there were times when, under the pressure 
of severe mental or bodily anguish, his sense of oneness 
with God was for the moment disturbed or lost, and he 
prayed in agony of spirit that the cup might pass from 
him, or, as if wholly deserted, uttered his cry of com- 
plete desolation upon the cross. 

At the time of his baptism Jesus seems to have been 
lifted up into a state of unusual spiritual exaltation, and 
being (Luke iv. 1) full of the Holy Spirit, he was led 
away, as by a divine impulse, — " led up of the Spirit," — 
into the solitary and mountainous regions about Jericho, 
and there gave himself to the thoughts suitable to his nature 
and condition, and to the great and solemn work on which 
he was now to enter. Mark describes the savage features 
of the country by saying that Jesus was there "with the 
wild beasts." He remained forty days. So Moses was 
in the mountain (Ex. xxxiv. 28) "forty days and forty 
nights," and "he did neither eat bread nor drink wine," 
and Elijah (1 Kings xix. 8) Avent in the strength of what 
he had eaten " forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the 
mount of God." It is impossible to say how long without 



72 MATTHEW IV. 1 — 11. 

any natural or supernatural sustenance the body may con- 
tinue, while the mind is withdrawn from outward interests 
and wholly absorbed in matters pertaining to its own sphere 
and life. By such an absorption of mind, the body may 
be thrown out of its normal condition, and as, in some ex- 
traordinary cases of swooning, may remain in what would 
seem almost a temporary suspension of the animal func- 
tions. However this may be, Jesus was in the wilderness 
forty days, either wholly without food, or with only such 
scant and insufficient nutriment as the mountain solitudes 
might offer, without thought or care on his part. The 
soul, abstracted from the body and material things, dwelt 
apart in a world of its own. But at last, the body, over- 
come by its long privations and the strain to which its 
finer organs had been subjected, sunk down, and the mind 
was called away from its own meditations and emotions 
to sympathize with the pangs of bodily suffering. The 
soul which had been lifted up to such heights of spiritual 
insight, and burdened with such a weight of duty and of 
glory, was now brought down to a keen and painful sense 
of earthly weakness, and the first thought that occurred 
to him was to employ the miraculous powers with which 
he had been gifted as the Son of God to turn the stones 
around him into loaves. From whatever source the thought 
may have come, it was probably entertained in that half- 
unconscious state, which we sometimes experience when 
the mind is so occupied with other matters that Ave me- 
chanically assent to what is proposed for our physical 
comfort or relief. There was nothing of itself sinful in 
the act suggested. But when the attention of Jesus was 
awakened, he saw whither the suggestion tended, and that. 
in employing his miraculous powers to satisfy his personal 
wants, he should stoop from his perfect disinterestedness, 
and spend on a low and selfish object gifts bestowed on 
him for the highest good of all. No craving of hunger 
should make him forget the higher wants of his nature. 



MATTHEW IV. 1-11. 73 

" Xot by bread alone," he replies, in language borrowed 
from the great lawgiver of Israel (Deut. viii. 3), "but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, doth 
man live." 

Having thus appealed from the exactions of hunger to 
the sources of a higher life in God, he is next tried by 
a suggestion of an entirely different character. He knew 
how gross and earthly were the expectations of the Messiah 
which prevailed among his countrymen, and how impossi- 
ble it would be to overcome their prejudices, change all 
their ideas and habits of thought, by the life of humilia- 
tion and sorrow which he was to lead among them. Why 
shall he not seek to reach their hearts in some other way ? 
Instead of shocking their most dearly cherished hopes, and 
repelling them forever from his kingdom, why shall he not 
enforce upon them the terms of his great mission by some 
public and extraordinary display of his miraculous endow- 
ments, and so overcome them with wonder and astonish- 
ment that they will hail him at once as the deliverer who 
had for so many centuries been foretold by prophets and 
longed for by patriarchs and kings ? In thought, he is borne 
to the summit of a lofty wing of the temple, while hun- 
dreds of thousands are gathered there at one of the great 
national festivals. As they are gazing upward towards 
him he is tempted to ask why he shall not cast himself 
down, knowing that as the Son of God he will be upborne 
by his angels and permitted to come to no harm? Thus 
he would show his confidence in God, and at the same 
time inaugurate his kingdom on the earth under the most 
favorable circumstances. The thought evidently had power 
to move and disturb him. But instantly he detects the 
dark design which lies concealed under this specious pro- 
posal. He sees that, instead of showing confidence in 
God by this vain and presumptuous display of his powers, 
he would only be tempting his providence. As the tempta- 
tion was enforced by words taken from the Psalms, so he 
7 



74 MATTHEW IV. 1-11. 

replies in language taken also from the Scriptures (Deut. 
vi. 16), "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." 

In the first temptation, the motive, the desire to appease 
his hunger, was innocent, but the object was unworthy the 
intervention of his miraculous powers. In the second temp- 
tation, the object, the speedy establishment of his kingdom, 
was worthy, but the motive which lay concealed under it, the 
love of immediate distinction, coupled with an unwillingness 
to wait God's time, was wrong. There yet remains another 
form in which the temptation may come. The question 
which might be supposed to be uppermost in the mind of 
Jesus was, how he might most effectually accomplish his 
work. The great changes which had been wrought, even 
in the religious ideas and institutions of mankind, had been 
accompanied, if not actually brought about and impressed on 
the common mind, by great political and social revolutions. 
It was so that Moses, placed in the exercise of his mirac- 
ulous powers at the head of the Jewish people, led them out 
of Egypt, and established a higher worship and a more be- 
neficent law. Why then may not Jesus, in establishing a 
still purer faith and worship, enlist on his side the powers 
of this world through the universal dominion to which he 
may attain by the exercise of his marvellous endowments ? 
It was no dream of earthly ambition, no vulgar thought of 
royal or imperial magnificence, that could be permitted even to 
approach the mind of Jesus, still less to throw a momentary 
shadow over it, or awaken one disturbing emotion or desire. 
But by placing himself at the head of the nations, at that 
grand crisis of human affairs, might he not more speedily 
and more effectually establish the kingdom of God among 
men than through the ignominious path of weakness, sorrow, 
humiliation, and death ? May he not in this way save his 
followers from the mortification and sorrows to which they 
must be exposed ? For a moment the thought came over 
him. But then, how shall such power over the nations be 
gained ? How secure the earthly throne through which his 



MATTHEW IV. 1-11. 75 

heavenly kingdom is to be advanced ? There is but one 
reply. Only by falling down and worshipping the prince of 
this world, only by submitting to its spirit and maxims, only 
by stooping to such considerations and measures as may 
influence worldly minds, can he bring the powers of the 
world under him. The cross, which he has seen looming 
up in the divine majesty of humiliation and suffering at the 
very entrance into his kingdom, must be lowered before 
the ensigns of earthly greatness. The crown of righteous- 
ness, which shines with no earthly splendors and for no mor- 
tal eyes, must grow dim and pale before the dazzling glories 
of an earthly diadem. Those great words hereafter to be 
uttered, and to carry terror into the hearts of kings, "My 
kingdom is not of this world," the sublime and perfect trust, 
which in the very hour and power of darkness would not 
call in even the legions of obedient angels to enforce his 
authority or defend him from wrong, must give way to the 
appeal to human prejudices and passions, to the marshalling 
of hosts and the bloody caparisons of war, that so the Prince 
of Peace may establish his reign of peace upon the earth. 
The thought is one abhorrent to every principle of his na- 
ture and his religion. The motive appealed to was high and 
pure ; the end was the very one for which he was born into 
the world ; but the means were bad. Instantly the disguise 
of the tempter is torn off, and his dark purposes are un- 
masked. " If only thou wilt fall down and worship me." 
He repels alike the temptation and the tempter with an 
energy of expression which shows how much he had been 
disturbed by the thought, and how vehemently he abhors 
and detests the blasphemous condition which had been so 
artfully concealed within it. " Get thee hence, Satan ; for 
it is written [Deut. vi. 13], Thou shalt worship the Lord thy 
God, and him only shalt thou serve." It is remarkable, that 
the only other instance in which our Saviour used this ener- 
getic expression of abhorrence occurred when, in reply to 
his prediction of the sufferings and shameful death which 



76 MATTHEW IV. 1-11. 

awaited him, Peter (Matt. xvi. 23) began to rebuke him in 
words which implied that the Messiah could not thus meanly 
and ignobly die. This was the one suggestion of evil, veil- 
ing itself in garments of light, which he met with the sharp- 
est exhibition of sensibility and impatience. 

Here the Devil left him, as St. Luke says, " for a season," 
and " behold, angels came and ministered unto him." There 
is nothing in either of the Evangelists to imply that the 
tempter came in bod ily shape, or that such a presence was rec- 
ognized in any other way than by the nature of fKe sug- 
gestions that were made. Whether there really is a prince 
of darkness, a malignant and mighty spirit, who had access 
to the mind of Jesus, with power to instil into it thoughts of 
evil under the guise of holiness and faith, is a question that we 
shall consider more fully hereafter. See xiii. 24 — 30. We 
know, however, too little of the unseen world of spiritual ex- 
istences, and especially of the dark background of evil which 
lies behind all actual sin, to be able to speak with confidence 
on such a subject. How far that invisible realm of life may 
be peopled by spiritual beings good and bad, how far, if at 
all, the two orders of spiritual beings may be allowed to in- 
termingle and carry on their various works, what limitations 
are assigned to their free action, and how the kingdoms of 
light and darkness may be arrayed one against the other, 
are questions which we cannot specifically answer. An evil 
man separated from the body is an evil spirit. There is 
then, so far as we can see, no more reason why evil spirits 
should not exist than that evil men should not. " There is 
nothing," says Mr. Norton, (Translation of the Gospels, Vol. 
II. pp. 61, 62,) " in the idea of daemons being allowed to 
affect the minds and bodies of men irreconcilable with any- 
thing we see in the moral government of God. There is no 
proof a priori against such agency." It narrows down the 
world in which Jesus moved, far more than reason gives us 
any warrant for doing, to cut him off from connection with 
all existences, except God on the one hand, and man with 



MATTHEW IV. 1-11. 77 

the laws and forces of the material universe on the other. 
"We cannot say how far the work of redemption in which he 
was engaged allied to itself the sympathy and employed the 
assistance and fellowship of angels, such as here came and 
ministered to him, or of holy men in their spiritual estate, 
such as Moses and Elijah who talked with him on the moun- 
tain of Transfiguration. Neither can we say how far his 
mighty work of redemption may have reached down through 
realms of spiritual darkness, and arrayed against him the 
active malignity of evil spirits as well as of wicked men. With- 
out the recognition of such existences both above and below, 
passages in his life, such as the temptation, the transfigura- 
tion, the agony, the cry upon the cross, to which the won- 
dering and trusting instincts of his followers have turned in 
all ages, lose much of their sublime moral significance, and 
their mysterious spiritual power. The victory which he 
gained in the wilderness was over something more than a 
passing thought of evil, which of itself could have had no 
power to shake his firm and sinless mind. It was the first 
of that series of struggles and victories through which he was 
to overthrow the very empire of darkness, and " destroy him 
that had the power of death." 

While we thus view the temptation as one which actually 
occurred to Jesus in the suggestion of thoughts which for the 
time disturbed and agitated his spirit, we may see in it an 
epitome of the heaviest temptations that can assail his dis- 
ciples, and of the way in which they should be overcome. 
There are the temptations of desire, — the love of enjoyment, 
the love of admiration, and the love of power, not presenting 
themselves to us in their coarse and selfish colors, as self-indul- 
gence, vanity, and ambition, but clothing themselves in hues 
borrowed from heaven, and insinuating themselves into our 
hearts by false appeals to high and generous and holy ends. 
There is no sin in laboring to satisfy our bodily wants ; but 
to concentrate our highest and best gifts on this work is to 
lose sight of the more essential truth, that we are to live not 
7* 



™ 



78 MATTHEW IV. 12-16. 

oy bread alone, but by all the influences and teachings of 
God. In that way the soul will be impoverished by the low 
and narrow acts to which it is devoted. On the other hand, 
in a high and religious act, throwing ourselves as favored ones 
of heaven on the special providence of God, that through the 
wonder thus excited we may gain over advocates to his 
cause, we may be led by hidden motives of personal vanity 
unconsciously to tempt and provoke that Providence whose 
leadings we ought to wait for and obey. Or while both the 
end and the motive are right, in our impatient zeal to ad- 
vance what we believe to be the cause of righteousness and 
God, we may be tempted to stoop to unsanctified means, and. 
to consent for the time to worship even the Devil in his 
disguise, if only he, with the powers which have been com- 
mitted to him, will help us on in our work. 

12-16. — Makes his Home in Capernaum. 

From the way in which the narrative goes on, we should 
suppose that the events recorded in the twelfth and follow- 
ing verses succeeded immediately to the Temptation. But 
from the first five chapters of John, we find that a considera- 
ble period of time and some important acts here intervened. 
Jesus, immediately after the Temptation, had come to John 
the Baptist, who on seeing him pronounced to his followers 
. the remarkable words, " Behold the lamb of God, which 
taketh away the sin of the world." Jesus then returned 
to Galilee where his first miracle was performed, and after- 
wards came up to Jerusalem to the Passover. It was 
probably while he was at Jerusalem that he heard of 
John's imprisonment, which led him to hasten his return 
to Galilee. On his way back to Galilee he had the con- 
versation with the woman of Samaria, which is related in 
the fourth chapter of John. He now left Nazareth and 
took up his abode at Capernaum, which was near the 
northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee, though its pre- 



MATTHEW IV. 17-22. 79 

cise locality is not known with certainty. The quotation 
from the Old Testament is part of the remarkable passage 
already alluded to in the first chapter of Matthew, and 
might well be employed by the writer to call the atten- 
tion of his Jewish readers to the extraordinary events 
which he is about to record as in some sense a fulfilment 
of the hardly less extraordinary prediction. Isa. viii. 22 ; 
ix. 1-7. 



17-22. — The Call of Simon Peter and Andrew his 
Brother, and of John and his Brother James. 

The readiness with which this call was obeyed would 
indicate some previous knowledge of Jesus on their part, 
such as we find (John i. 35-42) that they actually had. 
The expectations excited by John the Baptist were kept 
intensely alive by Jesus, though he had not yet publicly 
declared himself to be the Messiah. His proclamation 
(iv. 17) is the same as that of the Baptist : " Repent ; for 
the kingdom of heaven is at hand." But while he used 
and continued to use words familiar to the Jews as de- 
scribing an earthly kingdom, he took them up, as he did 
so many other Jewish phrases, into a higher plane of 
thought, and gradually invested them with a higher mean- 
ing and a purer spirit. He did not institute a new re- 
ligious language; but by a change of heart and life and 
thought through the great truths which he proclaimed, he 
would fill out old and familiar expressions with new ideas, 
and make them glow with the new light which he had 
thrown into them. 

23 - 25. The nature of the diseases which are here speci- 
fied, and the character of his miracles, will be more prop- 
erly considered in the specific cases as they occur hereafter. 



80 



MATTHEW IV. 



NOTES 



Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to 
be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days 
and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when 
the tempter came to him, he said : If thou be the Son of God, 
command that these stones be made bread. But he answered 
and said, It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, 



1. Led up of the Spirit] Luke 
says : " And Jesus, being full of the 
Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, 
and was led by the Spirit into the 
wilderness;" i. e. Jesus, filled with 
the spirit of God, and therefore de- 
siring a season of solitude, was led 
up into the wilderness, where he 
might give himself up entirely to 
the thoughts and emotions which 
pressed upon him, and rapt him as 
it were in an ecstasy so absorbing 
that for the time all consideration 
of earthly things, even of his own 
bodily wants, was foi-gotten. 

the wilderness] Probably the 
wild and mountainous region above 
Jericho, which, from the forty days, 
is called Quarantaria. Others sup- 
pose it to have been the Arabian des- 
ert of Sinai, where Moses and Elijah 
each fasted forty days. We do not 
think that Jesus attached any im- 
portance to such coincidences in 
time or place. His teachings and 
his life belong to a higher sphere of 
thought. . to be tempted] 

hi order, or so as to be tempted; 
the result put as if it had been the 
design. He was so filled with the 
spirit of God, that he sought for 
himself a solitary place where he 
might give himself up entirely to 
Him, and there, after his physical 
energies had become entirely ex- 
hausted, was a reaction in his mind. 
of the devil] For this 
word see Dis. here and XIII., and 
Note xiii. 39. 2. fasted 

forty days and forty nightsf 
In regard to the Oriental use or 
language in our day, Thomson, I. 
132, says : " You may take this as 
a general canon of interpretation, 



that any amount much less than 
usual means ' nothing ' in their dia- 
lect ; and if you understand more by 
it, you are misled. In fact, their 
ordinary fasting is only abstaining 
from certain kinds of food, not from 
all, nor does the word convey any 
other idea to them." It may, how- 
ever, be taken here in its stricter 
meaning. Luke says, iv. 2, " And 
in those days he did eat nothing." 
3. And when the 
tempter came to him] He was 
hungry, and in his hunger the tempt- 
er came to him. Oppressed with 
hunger, his mind reverted to the 
words spoken at his baptism, " This 
is my beloved son ; " and the thought 
was suggested to him, " If thou art 
really the Son of God, turn these 
stones into bread, and relieve thy 
necessities." But immediately he 
replies to the suggestion, from what- 
ever source it may have come; 

4. It is written, Man shall 
not live by bread alone] " Even 
in bread man lives not by bread only, 
for is not the life more than meat ? 
Is not the word, the will, the power 
of God in everything; so that we do 
not inhale our very breath from the 
air [alone], but from the breath of 

God ? In the deepest meaning 

of the essential and only truth, all 
things in the woi'ld, after 'their kind, 
are only variously embodied words 
of the Creator, inasmuch as by his 
mighty word alone they are upheld 

in being What is man ? Not 

the body with its earthly, animal 
soul, but the true and proper man, 
that is, the living spirit which came 
forth from God, which only lives in 
and by the spirit of God, which con- 



MATTHEW IV. 



81 



but by every word that proceedetli out of the mouth of God." 

5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth 

6 him on a pinnacle of the temple ; and saith unto him, If thou 
be the Son of God, cast thyself down ; for it is written, " He 
shall give his angels charge concerning thee ; and in their 
hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy 

7 foot against a stone." Jesus said unto him : It is written again, 
s " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Again, the devil 

taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth 

him all the kingdoms of the 'world, and the glory of them, and 

9 saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt 

io fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him : Get 

thee hence, Satan ; for it is written, " Thou shalt worship the 



tinually goes forth as word for the" 

preservation of the creature 

But this leads us further and fur- 
ther ; and ' not alone ' vindicates again 
the true life of man in God, against 
such as in their error cleave to any 
institution of the means of life, as if 
it was not God alone in them that 
gave them efficacy. As a general 
rule the word of God, externally 
written and preached, is given for 
'the food of the inner man ; but inas- 
much as the living word of God in 
the word is the true word, thou 
mayest, if it be his will, without 
Scripture and preaching, live by 
his spirit; without intercourse with 
brethren be connected with the 
Church ; even without the physical 
bread of the sacrament, receive, 
nevertheless, the heavenly bread. 
Every manna given by God in the 
creaturely form is a witness that 
points beyond itself to the imme- 
diate outgoing of God's life for the 
life of mail." Stier. 5. 

pinnacle of the temple] 7rre- 
pvyiov, wing, " spoken of the high- 
est point of the temple buildings, 
probably the elevation of the middle 
portion of the triple portico or colon- 
nade along the southern wall, which 
at its eastern end impended over 
the valley of Kidron ; so that if from 
its roof one attempted to look down 
into the gulf below, his eyes became 
dark and dizzy before they could 
penetrate the immense depth; Jos. 



Ait, XV. 11. 5. The actual height 
above the bottom of the valley was 
probably not less than three hun- 
dred and ten feet." Eobinson. 

7. " Wherein consists 
the tempting of God on the part of 
man? It is the complete opposite 
of the seeking in faith, of the wait- 
ing upon God in the obedience and 
confidence of trust, a self-willed 
demand of the mighty help of God; 
and consequently unbelief, disobe- 
dience, and distrust are its inner- 
most principles Every sin in 

its innermost principle is, properly 
speaking, a tempting and challeng- 
ing of God; since he who should 
obey tests the Almighty whether 
the way of his own self-will shall 
not prosper. But then, particularly, 
when the unbelief and disobedience 
of self-will presses forward in what 
is false presumption, though seem- 
ingly only a firm confidence in 
promised assistance, as if God must 
and should hearken to it; this is 
the marked aggravation of sin, to 
which Satan here allures." Stier. 

10. Get thee hence, 
Satan] The term Satan may here 
be applied to the evil suggestion, as 
it is in xvi. 23. and him only] 
Deut. vi. 13 ; x. 20. The quotation, 
like most of the quotations in Mat- 
thew, is from the Septuagint, and not 
from the Hebrew, where the word 
meaning only is not to be found. 

11. Then the devil leaveth 



82 



MATTHEW IV. 



Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Then the devil u 
leaveth him; and, behold, angels came and ministered unto 
him. 

Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, 12 
he departed into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came 13 
and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea-coast, in the 
borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim ; that it might be fulfilled u 



him, and, behold, angels came 
and ministered unto him] The 

presence of the evil spirit and the 
ministry of the angels rest here on 
the same authority. But we must 
not confound our popular idea of 
the devil with that of the Evange- 
list. Still less are we to confound 
with it the philosophical idea bor- 
rowed from the East, which makes 
the prince of darkness the almost 
equal antagonist of God. Whatever 
else they may teach on this sub- 
ject, the Gospels lend no counte- 
nance to any such doctrine as this. 
The most that can be legitimately 
inferred from them is, that there are 
evil spirits, and one at their head, 
"the devil and his angels'," xxiv. 
41, who, within certain limits al- 
lowed by God, may have the power 
of suggesting evil thoughts. There 
is nothing in this chapter to show 
that Satan appeared in bodily form 
or to the outward eye, even if we 
suppose the language to mean that 
he was personally present. All that 
is implied, even on that supposition, 
is, that Satan, seeing our Saviour's 
helpless condition, — 

" 111 wast thou shrouded then, patient 
Son of God! " — 

took advantage of his weariness, 
exhaustion, and consequent de- 
pression, and suggested to him the 
thoughts here recorded, as if they 
had been the spontaneous sug- 
gestions of his own mind. There is 
nothing which proves it to have been 
the writer's intention to say that he 
transported Jesus bodily to the tem- 
ple and mountain. The most that 
can be inferred is, that he took him 
away in thought or in spirit, pre- 
senting to him these objects and 
.suggestions so vividly that the whole 



transaction seemed as if it had ac- 
tually passed before him. " The 
temptation of Jesus," says Olshau- 
sen, " stands as one of those decisive 
events, such as are met with in a 
lower degree in common life also, 
and which, by the determination 
that we take in them, give a direc- 
tion to the whole after-life. The 
Saviour here appears as standing 
between the two worlds of light and 
darkness. As the hostile powers 
fled, heavenly powers surrounded 
him, and joined in celebrating the 
victory of good." " Since," he con- 
tinues, " the temptation of Jesus 
took place in the depth of his in- 
ward life without witnesses, we must 
regard the narration of Jesus as the 
only source of information and tes- 
timony to its reality." 13. 
And leaving Nazareth, he 
came and dwelt in Caperna- 
um] " Nazareth, Kefr, Kenna, 
Kana, and all the regions adja- 
cent, where our Lord lived, and 
where he commenced his ministry, 
and by his miracles 'manifested 
forth his glory,' were within the 
limits of Zebulon; but Capernaum, 
Chorazin, and Bethsaida were in 
Naphtali. It was this latter tribe 
that was ' by the way of the sea be- 
yond Jordan', Galilee of the Gentiles.' 
Zebulon did not touch the sea at any 
point, but the territories of these two 
tribes met at the northeast corner of 
the Buttauf, not far from Kana, and 
within these two tribes thus united 
our Lord passed nearly the whole of 
his wonderful life." Thomson, II. 
122, 123. 14, 15. which 
was spoken by Esaias] The 
passage hei*e following is a free 
quotation from Isa. ix. 1, 2. Dr. 
Noyes's translation from the He- 
brew is as follows: — 



MATTHEW IV. 83 

15 which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying : " The land 
of Zabulon, and the land of Xephthalim, by the way of the 

16 sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which 
sat in darkness saw great light ; and to them which sat in the 

17 region and shadow of death light is sprung up." From 

that time Jesus began to preach, and to say : Repent ; for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand. 

is And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, 
Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net 

19 into the sea ; for they were fishers. And he saith unto them : 

20 Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they 

21 straightway left their nets, and followed him. And going on 
from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zeb- 
edee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, 

22 mending their nets ; and he called them. And they imme- 
diately left the ship and their father, and followed him. 

23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their syna- 
gogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing 
all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the 

24 people. And his fame went throughout all Syria ; and they 
brought unto him all sick people, that were taken with divers 
diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with 



1 "But the darkness shall not remain 7 " His domain shall be great. 

whore now is distress ; And peace without end shall rest 

Of old he brought the land of Zebulon Upon the throne of DaTid and his 

and the land of Xephtali into con- kingdom, 

tempt ; He shall fix and establish it 

In future times shall he brin? the land Through justice and equity, 

of the sea, bevond the Jordan, the Henceforth and forever." 

circle of the Gentiles, into honor. T . . ,.-. .. . ,, . ., . 

It is difficult to suppose that this 

2 " The people that walk in darkness language was intended to express 
be .old a great light : nothing more than the temporal 



prosperity of the land under any 



They who dwell in the land of death 

Upo^t^ light shineth. Sne Sfite kings. " 23. ta>e£ 

synagogues] " Synagogues are 

"For the greaves of the warrior armed not mentioned till after the captivi- 

for the conflict, tv. See Jos. Ant., XIX. 6. 3 ; De Bel. 

And the war-garments rolled in blood. jfoj yjj. 3- 3. T n the time of Jesus 

Shall be burned ; yea, they shall be th were d al] Palestine, 

tood tor the fire. ' ,, r ..it j t 

as well as among the dispersed Jews ; 

" For to us a child is bom, in Jerusalem there are said to have 

To us a son is given, been four hundred and eischtv of 

And the goYernment shall be upon his them." Olshausen. The officers of 

And'he'shall be called th % *Y™gogiie appear to have been, 

Wonderful, counsellor, mi-hty poten- ~ *■ the raler ot the synagogue, 

tate ; Luke viii. 49 ; xiii. 14, who had the 

Everlasting father, prince of peace. care of public order, and the arrange- 






84 



MATTHEW IV. 



devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the 
palsy ; and he healed them. And there, followed him great 25 
multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and 
from Jerusalem, and from Judsea, and from beyond Jordan. 



ment of the service ; 2. the elders, 
who with the ruler formed a sort of 
council; 3. the substitute or angel 
of the assembly, — legatus or angelus 
eccleske, — who was the reader of 
prayers, &c. ; 4. the virrjpiT-qs, or 
chapel clerk, to prepare the books 
for reading, to sweep, &c. There 



were seats, the first row of which 
appear to have been coveted, Matt, 
xxiii. 6; a pulpit for the reader, 
lamps, and a chest for keeping the 
sacred book." From this account it 
is easy to see how the Christian 
Church, with its service, grew out 
of the Jewish synagogue. 



I 



MATTHEW Y* 85 



CHAPTER V. 

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. 

The precise order of events is not observed by St. 
Matthew. He does not distinctly point out the time when 
the Sermon on the Mount was given. After a passage, 
iv. 23 - 25, which, in its general terms applying to Christ's 
manner of life and the extent of territory which he visited, 
may cover no small part of his ministry in Galilee, this 
particular discourse is specified; but, except what might 
be inferred from the part of the narrative in which it 
occurs, no reference is made to the time when it was given. 
It is very much as if the writer had said, Jesus went for 
a considerable period of time through an extensive region, 
performing miraculous cures and attended by great multi- 
tudes of people. On one occasion, when he saw an immense 
concourse of people who had come from Galilee and De- 
capolis, from Jerusalem and Judcea, and from beyond the 
Jordan, he went up into a mountain. Luke vi. 12-18, on 
the other hand, indicates the time and the circumstances. 
It was just after Jesus had chosen his twelve disciples. 
He had retired into a mountain to spend the night in 
prayer. And in the morning, having set apart his twelve 
disciples, he came down to a level spot on the mountain, 
and there, when great multitudes had come to him, and 
he had healed their sick, " he lifted up his eyes on his dis- 
ciples," and, addressing himself particularly to them, uttered 
these words. The fact of his speaking particularly to his 
disciples must be borne in mind, in order to understand 
the extent and bearing of some of the directions. Though 
containing principles applicable to all his followers in all 

8 



86 MATTHEW V. 

ages, they were primarily addressed to the Apostles, and 
have some specific rules which apply particularly to them 
and to those who may be situated as they were. 

Jesus had as yet made no public proclamation of the 
character of his kingdom. The multitudes were gathering 
round him in eager expectation of the time when he would 
raise the standard under which they should march on to 
victory and universal dominion. They thought only of 
an outward, visible kingdom, whose throne should be estab- 
lished by overthrowing existing governments, and placing 
the Jewish people, under their divine leader, at the head 
of all the nations of the earth. The visions of warlike 
conquest, of earthly glory and power, which had attended 
them through so many centuries, sweetening the cup of 
present sorrow, defeat, and captivity with the hope of 
future triumph over all their enemies, were now about 
to be realized. The long-expected Messiah had made 
his advent at last. Thousands were thronging about him, 
anxiously awaiting from him the signal for their national 
deliverance. Under circumstances of extraordinary solem- 
nity he was now about to inaugurate his kingdom. The 
excitement is intense and overpowering. 

The terms used by the Evangelists Matthew and Luke 
would seem, as Tholuck and Olshausen say, to indicate the 
peculiar solemnity of the occasion. " He lifted up his 
eyes on his disciples," as if aware that the great crisis 
in man's history had come, and that he was now about to 
proclaim for the first time a kingdom such as never before 
had been established on earth. The expression, " having 
opened his mouth," implies a previous silence, in which 
the impatient expectations of the people were painfully 
suppressed. At last he opened his mouth, and what are 
the words which come to them ? They are ready for deeds 
of violence. They would take up arms to throw off the 
Roman yoke. They have come to receive the benedic- 
tion of their great deliverer before enlisting under his 



MATTHEW V. 3 - 16. 87 

banner for the wars in which he is to lead them on to 
what the prophet Daniel had described when he said, 
vii. 14, " There was given him dominion and glory and 
a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should 
serve him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which 
shall not pass away, and Ins kingdom, that which shall 
not be destroyed." 

3-16. — The Beatitudes. 

But all these expectations, all their hopes of external 
dominion and glory, are thrown down and destroyed for- 
ever by the first words that fall from the lips of him to 
whom they had looked as their Messiah. His benedic- 
tions are not for the mighty men of war, for those who 
make their way to positions of wealth and power, and who 
are honored among men. But, "Blessed are the poor in 
spirit ; Blessed are they that mourn ; Blessed are they 
who hunger and thirst after righteousness; Blessed are 
the meek ; Blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart, 
the peacemakers." And, as if this were not enough to 
crush all the worldly hopes with which they had come 
to him, he still more pointedly adds, " Blessed are ye 
when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall 
say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." 
Here, in his prophetic mind, seeing as already present 
the spiritual victories which are to be gained through ob- 
loquy, persecution, and death, he breaks out, for the moment, 
into a lyric strain of exultation such as we find only on two 
or three other occasions in his life. He calls on his follow- 
ers to rejoice, and be exceeding glad. He sees in them 
even now the grand conservative element of society, the 
salt of the earth, which, amid the general corruption and 
decay, shall save the world from death. Amid the almost 
universal darkness they are to be the light of the world, — 
a light so shining before men that they, seeing their good 
works, shall glorify their Father who is in heaven. 



88 MATTHEW V. 17-48. 

And from that day to this how true have these words of 
Jesus been in their application to those who have done most 
for the advancement of his kingdom ! " Holy men," says 
Mr. Norton, Tracts on Christianity, p. 144, "have suffered 
and died to procure for us the privileges which we enjoy. 

They have followed in the track of pure splendor, 

in which their great Master ascended to heaven 

There is something very solemn and sublime in the feeling 
produced by considering how differently these men have 
been estimated by their contemporaries, from the manner in 
which they are regarded by God. We perceive the appeal 
which lies from the ignorance, the folly, and the iniquity of 
man to the throne of Eternal Justice. A storm of calumny 
and reviling pursued them through life, and continued, when 
they could no longer feel it, to beat upon their graves. But 
it is no matter. They have gone where all who have suf- 
fered, and all who have triumphed, in the same noble cause, 
receive their reward ; but where the wreath of the martyr is 
more glorious than that of the conqueror." This triumph 
through death, this crown of martyrdom more joyful and 
glorious than all the insignia of earthly greatness or success, 
was first announced by Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the 
Mount, and held up by him as the last and highest of the 
Beatitudes. 



17-48. — Fulfilling the Law and the Prophets. 

But this mode of teaching looks like an attempt to do 
away with the old dispensation, or to make it of no account. 
Such a purpose would prejudice against him, not Pharisees 
alone, but even the humble-minded and devout Jews who 
have been waiting for his coming. Pie therefore declares 
that he has not come to destroy, but to fulfil, the law and the 
prophets. " Till heaven and earth shall pass away, not one 
jot or one tittle \_jot, the least letter in the Hebrew alphabet, 
and tittle, a slight mark or corner of a letter], not the small- 



MATTHEW V. 17-48. 89 

est letter or stroke, shall pass away from the law, till all be 
fulfilled." But he did destroy the ceremonial law of Moses. 
In what sense then did he come to fulfil it ? In that sense, 
we may reply, in which it was intended from the beginning 
that it should be fulfilled. It came from God. It embodied 
its holy principles and its prophetic life in outward ceremo- 
nies adapted to a rude and idolatrous age. It spoke to the 
coarse, dull minds it met, through such a language as they 
could understand, of symbols, types, and sacrificial obser- 
vances. It went on from age to age, with judges and proph- 
ets, unfolding its deeper meaning with the advancing intel- 
ligence of the nation, writing out its expanding history of 
obedience and disobedience with their swiftly following retri- 
butions, in the progress of the race, pouring out its devo- 
tions in hymns and psalms and spiritual songs, giving utter- 
ance to its hopes in prophecies which flashed on with their 
sublime anticipations through distant centuries, till at length 
all law and history, hymn and prophecy, should be taken 
up into the life towards which they had always been pointing, 
and find their fulfilment in the spiritual religion, the kingdom 
of God, which Jesus came to establish on earth, and which in 
its saintly fellowship reaches up from earth to heaven. Thus, 
the law, according to its sacred and original design, was 
not destroyed but fulfilled, when in the fulness of time it left 
behind its now wearisome and ineffectual forms, and took up 
its sinless abode in Jesus Christ, condensing its instructions 
into his words, appealing to men through him as a divine 
life, and concentrating into his death the infinite treasures of 
divine love, mercy, and forgiveness, which had been poorly 
symbolized to the burdened heart of man by the ark of the 
covenant, the mercy-seat, and the sacrifices, in the wilder- 
ness or the temple, through so many centuries. 

Jesus fulfils the law and the prophets first, of all by tak- 
ing up and condensing into his own words the life-giving 
spirit which pervaded them. Thus, as Cyprian long ago 
remarked, he has sometimes given one or two precepts, e. g. 
8* 



— 



90 MATTHEW v. 17-48. 

Matt. vii. 12, or xxii. 37-40, on which, as he said, "hang 
all the law and the prophets." In this way he shows in the 
Sermon on the Mount how the law and the prophets are to be 
fulfilled, not by a literal, heartless, and formal observance ; 
for unless their " righteousness," i. e. in this connection, their 
obedience to the law, should be something more than that of 
the Scribes who taught and the Pharisees who formally ob- 
served its precepts, they could not enter into the kingdom of 
the heavens. 

Then, by a few illustrations which go to the very root of 
the matter, in a manner more masterly than anything else 
in the range of legal or metaphysical analysis, he seizes on 
the principle which underlies the form and gives its mean- 
ing to the enactment, and shows how the law, defeated often 
and made of none effect by an obedience which is confined 
to a literal observance of its precepts, is really to be fulfilled 
only by obedience to its spirit and intention. 

The law, 21, forbids the act of murder. But do they 
therefore keep the law in its purest intention who observe 
this precept and yet cherish an angry, contemptuous, or 
malicious spirit, which is in itself the soul and essence of 
murder ? 

The law, 27, forbids adultery, and so far has respect to 
our human weakness and hardness of heart, xix. 8, as to 
allow the separation of man and wife, provided that certain 
legal forms are observed. But the true intention of the law, 
which looks to chastity as belonging to the soul as well as to 
the body, goes beyond the outward act. It would pluck out 
the eye that tempts to sin, cut off the offending hand, and 
allow nothing but death, or that violation of the great and 
essential law of conjugal fidelity which is in itself a dissolu- 
tion of the marriage tie, to interfere with the permanency of 
that relation, which, as an Apostle has said, Eph. v. 32, " is 
a great mystery," which enters the inmost springs of social 
and domestic purity, and touches at its source the fountain 
of life to every child that comes into the world. 



MATTHEW V. 17 - 48. 91 

The law, 33, forbids perjury. But obedience to this neg- 
ative precept does not answer the intention of the law, which 
finds its fulfilment only in such a state of inward integrity 
and reverence for God and the truth, that a man's word will 
be as sacred as an oath ; and consequently oaths themselves 
in the dealing of Christians with one another will be super- 
fluous, and therefore, according to the spirit of the third 
commandment, profane. Especially will this principle cut 
off those foolish forms of oaths then common among the 
Jews, which were made for evasion and dishonesty, and 
which, as Jesus declared in another place (Matt, xxiii. 16- 
22), are sacrilegious and profane. k * If," says Philo Judaeus, 
•• a man must swear, and is so inclined, let him add, if he 
pleases, not indeed the highest name of all, and the most im- 
portant cause of all things, but the earth, the sun, the stars, 
the heaven, the universal Avorld," &c, &c, (Bonn's Philo 
Judaeus, III. p. '2oti.) so as to evade the third command- 
ment. There does not seem to be any reference here, in 
our Saviour's words, to judicial oaths. 

The law, 08, allows retaliation, " an eye for an eye, and a 
tooth for a tooth." But he who has been wronged is not 
bound thus to avenge himself. The highest intention of the 
law, the principle of justice which by the injured party is 
to be blended with mercy, finds its fulfilment, not in a literal 
observance of the precept and the revengeful spirit thus 
cherished, but in that state of mind which would rather suf- 
fer evil than inflict violence in return, and submit even to 
an unreasonable demand rather than forcibly to resist it. 
TVhile the principle here involved is to be of universal ap- 
plication, the specific directions were undoubtedly intended 
particularly for the disciples. Nor even by them, as Jesus 
showed in his own conduct, John xviii. 23, when smitten on 
the face, were they to be literally observed. 

The pure intention of the law, 43, which, in commanding 
to love our neighbor, would seem also to command us to 
hate our enemies, is fulfilled only in such an extension of the 



■■ 



92 MATTHEW V. 17-48. 

literal precept as may embrace all mankind, and lead us to 
love even our enemies, and pray for those who persecute 
and wrong us, that so we may strive to be perfect even as 
our Father in heaven is perfect, who causeth his sun to shine 
and his rains to descend on the evil and the good. 

This train of thought runs through the whole Sermon on 
the Mount. There is no repeal of the old law, but a more 
thorough application and universal extension of its prin- 
ciples. If it left many of its forms and specific rules behind, 
it was only that it might be fulfilled, according to its original 
and divine intention, by being taken up into a higher realm, 
and, as a spiritual power and influence, establishing its king- 
dom in the heart, and reaching the fountains of thought and 
life. The Jewish altar and temple must be overthrown. 
The smoke of the morning and evening sacrifice shall no 
longer rise from Mount Moriah. The Jews shall be dis- 
persed through all the nations, and the Mosaic observances, 
as living institutions, be swept away from the earth. But 
till heaven and earth pass, away, not one iota of the law in 
its essential characteristics shall pass away, till all its pur- 
poses are fulfilled. It came from God. It is the source of 
all true order and harmony in civil communities, and in the 
souls of men. It would lead by its divine precepts and its 
divine life through all the constraints and oppositions and 
changes of our mortal condition to the attainment of peace 
and harmony and spiritual joy. This law of God Jesus 
found stifled beneath endless traditions and restraints, like 
Lazarus in his tomb. He called it into life. He loosed it 
from its grave-clothes, and sent it forth a free, beneficent, and 
living spirit, with words of holy benediction, forgiveness, 
life, and peace to weary, sorrowing, and sinful hearts, who 
were sitting in darkness, and waiting for the kingdom of 
God. And in whatever age the Pharisees among Christian 
sects have sought by their traditionary doctrines or forms 
to bind and bury it, and to build up in its place a system of 
ceremonial observances and articles of faith which lead to 



MATTHEW V. 



93 



superstition and hypocrisy, the simple words and acts of 
Jesus, the Gospels in their simplicity and power, and es- 
pecially this great Sermon on the Mount, are always the 
most terrible as they are the most effectual protest against 
them. 



NOTES. 



And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain ; and 

2 when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened 

3 his mouth, and taught them, saying : Blessed are the poor in 

4 spirit , for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are they 



1. a mountain] This is sup- 
posed to be a mountain known as 
Keerun Hattin, the Horns of Hattin ; 
but there is no certainty in regard 
to it. The place most probably was 
on the west side of the Lake of 
Galilee. 2. In regard to 

the disappointment caused to all 
the Jewish prepossessions and am- 
bitious hopes by these Beatitudes, 
Dr. Palfrey says': "I think we may 
see that Jesus designed to break the 
force of the blow, by hinting that the 
view which he was presenting was 
not without warrant from those same 
Old Testament Scriptures which it 
seemed to oppose. To this end not 
a little of the phraseology employed 
by him on this occasion appears to 
have been assumed." Among the 
instances which he eives, compare 
Matt. v. 3 with Ps. li. 17 ; Isa. Ixvi. 2, 
v. 4, with Ps. cxxvi. 5; Isa. lxi. 2, v. 
5, with Ps. xxxvii. 11, v. 6, with Ps. 
xvii. 15, v. 7, with Ps. xxxvii. 25, 
26, xli. 1. 3. Blessed 

are the poor in spirit] Not the 
poor in this world's goods, though 
the idea is founded on a reference 
to them, but they who so feel their 
spiritual wants as to long for the 
riches "of God's spiritual kingdom; 
for theirs, m a peculiar sense, is 
the kingdom of God. It is not im- 
probable, as has been suggested, that 



" our Lord may have had a refer- 
ence to the poor and subjugated 
Jewish people around him, once 
members of the theocracy, and now 
expectants of the Messiah's tempo- 
ral kingdom, and, from their condi- 
tion and hopes, taken occasion to 
preach to them the deeper spiritual 
truth." 4. This verse 

carries on the same idea, and gives 
its benediction, not only to the poor, 
but to those who have such a con- 
sciousness of spiritual loneliness that 
they mourn as in a state of bereave- 
ment, "for they shall be comfort- 
ed." To them the Comforter shall 
come. The solitude in which they 
mourn shall be filled by Him whose 
absence they lament. And as the 
poor and sorrowing, in opposition 
to the proud and self-satisfied, are 
blessed, so also, 5, are the meek, in 
opposition to the wilful and violent; 
for they (Ps. xxxvii. 11) shall inherit 
the earth, or the land. The expres- 
sion " to inherit the land" originally 
applied to the promised land, be- 
came at length a common term to 
denote the full enjoyment of the Di- 
vine blessing. As the poor in spirit 
shall enjoy the kingdom of God 
spiritually present in their souls, so 
the meek, in the renunciation of Avil- 
fulness and violence, shall enjoy it 
also in its outward gifts. Meekness 



■■ 



94 MATTHEW V. 

that mourn ; for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the 5 
meek ; for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they 6 
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness ; for they shall 
be Med. Blessed are the merciful ; for they shall obtain 1 
mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart ; for they shall see s 
God. Blessed are the peacemakers ; for they shall be called a 
the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted 10 
for righteousness' sake ; for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. 
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, n 
and shall say all manner of evil against you, falsely, for my 
sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad ; for great is your re- 12 
ward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which 

were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth. But if the 13 

salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted ? It is 
thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trod- 
den under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A u 
city that is set on an hill cannot be hid ; neither do men light is 
a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick ; and 
it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light 16 
so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and 
glorify your Father which is in heaven. Think not that I n 



is a quality of mind which disarms not only good for nothing, but it 
opposition, admits us to the conn- actually destroys all fertility where- 
dence and affections of others, and ever it is thrown. "It is cast out" 
thus, enabling us to enjoy whatever and " trodden under foot; " so trou- 
is most to be desired in the inter- blesome is this corrupted salt, that 
course of life, leads us truly to in- it is carefully swept up, carried 
herit the land. The expression forth, and thrown into the street, 
reaches on also to the period when There is no place about the house, 
the violent shall be put down, and yard, or garden where it can be 
the meek prevail and triumph. tolerated." And so, our Saviour 
11. for my sake] " Where says, it is with those who, being 
selfishness prevails, there cannot be teachers and preachers of righteous- 
such suffering as bestows happiness, ness, lose their zeal and fall away 
But where suffering is incurred for from the faith. 16. So] As 
the faith's sake, and is borne in faith, the city on a hill, as the candle on 
it perfects the inward life, and a candlestick, so, i- e. in like man- 
awakens the desire for erernitv." ner, let vour light shine. IT. 
Olshausen. 13. if the to fulfil] One of the Fathers corn- 
salt] If you, the very salt of the pares the law to a sketch, which 
earth, should lose vour virtue, how the painter does not destroy, but 
can the deficiency be made up? fills out. It means to complete or 
" It is a well-known fact that the carry out. So, xxiii. 32, " Fill ye 
salt of this countrv [Palestine], up [fulfil] then the measure Of your 
when in contact with the ground, fathers," i. e. complete the work 
or exposed to rain and sun, does which they have begun. So here, 
become insipid and useless. It is to fulfil the law and the prophets is 



MATTHEW V. 



95 



am come to destroy the law or the prophets ; I am not come to 

is destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven 

and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from 

19 the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break 
one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he 
shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven ; but whoso- 
ever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in 

20 the kingdom of Heaven. For I say unto you, that, except your 
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and 
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven. 

21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, " Thou 
shalt not kill ; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of 

22 the judgment." But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry 
with his brother, without a cause, shall be in danger of the 



to complete their work, — to carry 
out and finish their design, — though 
such a fulfilment or completion 
should he accomplished by leaving 
their temporary provisions behind, 
and absorbing their essential life 
and truth into the higher dispensa- 
tion for which they were intended 
to prepare the Way, and by which 
they are apparently superseded. 
20. Scribes] " Persons devoted to 
the work of reading and expound- 
ing the law, whose office seems first 
to have become frequent after the 
return from Babylon. They gener- 
ally appear in the New Testament 
in connection with the Phai'isees; 
but it appears from Acts xxiii. 9 
that there were Scribes attached 
to the other sects also. In Matt. 
xxi. 15 they appear with the chief 
priests; but it is in the temple 
where they acted as a sort of police. 

Their authority, as ex- 

poundei-s of the law, is recognized 
by our Lord himself, Matt. xxii. 1, 
2 ; their adherence to the oral tradi- 
tionary exposition proved, Matt. xv. 
1 ; the respect in which they were 
held by the people shown, Luke xx. 
46 ; their existence indicated, not 
only in Jerusalem, but also in Gali- 
lee, Luke v. 17 ; and in Rome, Jose- 
phus, Ant. XVIII. 3. 5." Alford. 
22. without a cause] is omitted 
by Tischendorf, and is undoubtedly 



an interpolation. There are three 
degrees of guilt here indicated: 1. 
anger against a brother ; 2. anger 
venting itself in a term of contempt, 
Jtaca, thou ruin, empty one ; 3. anger, 
using a still more bitter term of re- 
proach, /*«pe, either a Greek word 
signifying " thou fool," or a Hebrew 
word signifying "rebel," and the 
very word for uttering which Moses 
and Aaron were debarred from en- 
tering the land of promise; Hear 
now, ye rebels, Num. xx. 10. The 
punishment due to each of these 
three degrees of guilt is graduated, 
— 1. by " the judgment.'" 1 or local and 
inferior court; 2. by " the council,'"' 
or Sanhedrim, the highest legal 
Jewish tribunal ; and 3. and severest 
of all, by " the Gehenna of jire" 
" the end of the malefactor, whose 
corpse, thrown into the valley of 
Hinnom, was devoured by the 
worm, or the flame." Gehenna, 
the valley of Hinnom, or Tophet, 
running down from the west on the 
southern border of Jerusalem to 
the valley of Jehoshaphat. It has 
been supposed that the allusion 
here is to the offal from the city, 
which was thrown out into this 
valley to be consumed by fire. But 
Dr. Robinson says that there is no 
evidence of such fires having been 
kept up in the valley. " Here," he 
says, " the ancient Israelites estab- 



96 MATTHEW V. 

judgment ; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall 
be in danger of the council ; but whosoever shall say, Thou 
fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring 23 
thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother 
hath aught against thee ; leave there thy gift before the altar, 24 
and go thy way ; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then 
, come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, 25 
whiles thou art in the way with him ; lest at any time the ad- 
versary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee 
to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto 26 
thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast 
paid the uttermost farthing. Ye have heard that it was said 27 
by them of old time, " Thou shalt not commit adultery." 
But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust 28 
after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. 
And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from 29 
thee ; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members 
should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into 
hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it 30 
from thee ; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members 
should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into 
hell. It hath been said, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, 31 
let him give her a writing of divorcement." But I say unto 32 
you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the 
cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery ; and who- 



Hshed the idolatrous worship of Mo- before the case is brought before a 

loch, to whom they burned infants public tribunal. This is the literal 

in sacrifice. 2 Kings xxiii. 10; Jer. sense: it involves another and high- 

vii. 31. It was apparently in allu- er meaning; the way of all the earth, 

sion to this detested and abominable through^ which we are journeying 

fire that the later Jews employed to the judgments of eternity/ and 

the name of this valley (Gehenna) the word '•'■quickly' 1 '' alluding'to the 

to denote the place of future punish- swiftness of the passage, and the 

merit, or the fires of Tartarus." shortness of life. 29, 30. If 

23. "It is not what complaints we thy right eye, if thy 

have against others that we are to right hand, offend thee] i. e. 

consider at such a time, but what tempt thee to sin. We are to de- 

they have against us ; not what stroy the first buddings of evil de- 

ground we have given for complaint, sire, though it should be by the sacri- 

but what complaints they, as matter fice of what is most dear and useful 

of fact, make against us." Alford. to us. There must be no dallying 

25. thine adversary] or parleying with the temptations of 

he to whom thou hast given offence, passion. Whatever the sacrifice, Ave 

Whiles thou art in the must turn away at the very begin- 

way with him] tothe judge, i.e. ning. He who hesitates is lost. 



MATTHEW V. 



97 



soever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. 

33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old 
time, " Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto 

34 the Lord thine oaths." But I say unto you, Swear not all ; 

35 neither by heaven, for it is God's throne ; nor by the earth, for 
it is his footstool ; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the 

36 great King ; neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because 

37 thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your 
communication be, Yea, yea ; Nay, nay ; for whatsoever is 



32. causeth her to commit 
adultery] How so ? By putting 
her away for any other cause than 
the one herein specified, the man 
declares the whole previous mar- 
riage to have been unlawful, impure, 
and adulterous, and thus makes her 
guilty of adultery. Any other rea- 
son for divorce than the one speci- 
fied, which is in itself a dissolution 
of marriage, would invalidate the 
whole previous marriage, and prove 
the parties living under its sanction 
to have been in that very act guilty 
of adultery. We do not find the 
difficulty by which most commen- 
tators, from St. Augustine down- 
wards, are embarrassed in their in- 
terpretation of this passage. The 
man who unjustly repudiates his 
wife, does not oblige her to marry 
again, and therefoi-e does not, in 
that way, cause her to commit 
adultery. And yet this is what is 
usually regarded'as the true inter- 
pretation. And whosoever 
shall marry her that is di- 
vorced, committeth adultery.] 
The only person who, according to 
our Saviour, is properly and really 
divorced, is she who has been guil- 
ty of fornication, and he Avho mar- 
ries her thereby incurs the guilt of 
adultery. The intention of this, 
and of the other passage in which 
Jesus speaks of divorce (see xix. 8, 
9), is to render the marriage relation 
as indissoluble as possible, — 1. by 
forbidding divorce except for a single 
cause; and, 2. by forbidding the 
woman who is thus put away, and 
the man who puts away his wife 
for any other cause than that, to 
"many again. But hoAV is it with 
9 



one. who, through the criminal con- 
duct of the other party, is divorced? 
There is no authority given for such 
an one to many again, though it 
is not specifically forbidden. The 
Roman Church forbids such mar- 
riages ; the Greek and Protestant 
churches allow them. The spirit, 
if not the letter, of our Saviour's 
instructions would seem to dis- 
countenance them. 33, 35. 
" Men had learned to think that, if 
only God's name were avoided, 
there was no irreverence in the fre- 
quent oaths, by heaven, by the earth, 
by Jerusalem, by their own heads, 
and these brought in on the slight- 
est need, or on no need at all ; just 
as now-a-days the same lingering 
half-respect for the Holy Name will 
often cause men, who would not be 
wholly profane, to substitute for 
that name sounds that nearly re- 
semble, but are not exactly it, or 
the name, it may be, of some hea- 
then deity." Trench. This whole 
matter of blasphemously trifling 
and evasive oaths is again power- 
fully brought forward in Ch. xxiii. 
16-22; and that passage may be 
taken as the best commentary on 
this : " Ye say, whosoever "shall 
swear by the temple, it is nothing;" 
but, in fact, " whoso shall swear by 
the temple, sweareth by it, and by 
Him that dwelleth therein. And 
he that shall sAvear by heaven, 
sweareth bv the throne of God, and 
by Him that sirteth thereon." 36. 
Thou must not, then, swear even by 
thine own head ; for it is not thine 
own : thou canst not change one 
hair white or black. It, also, is the 
" creature of God, whose destinies 



98 



MATTHEW V. 



more than these cometh of evil. Ye have heard that it hath 39 
been said, " An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." But I 39 
say unto you, that ye resist not evil ; but whosoever shall smite 
thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also ; and if any 40 
man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him 
have thy cloak also ; and whosoever shall compel thee to go a 41 
mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee ; and 42 



and changes are in God's hand; so 
that every oath is an appeal to 
God." 37. cometh of 

evil] Among true men more is 
not needed, and whatever more 
than a simple affirmation is re- 
quired hy men is because of the 
wickedness among them. Among 
you, in your dealings with one an- 
other, this necessity ought not to 
exist. 38. an eye for an 

eye] This rule, Ex. xxi. 24, as St. 
Augustine has said, was not in- 
tended as an incitement, but as a 
limit to private revenge; not as a 
command stimulating men to do so 
much, but as a command forbid- 
ding them to exact more. The 
command, however, in its original 
connection, is to the wrong-doer, 
"Then thou shalt give life for life; 
eye for eye." 39. That 

ye resist not evil] rat Trovrjpcp, 
the evil or wicked man, who is 
doing you a wrong. It is better to 
submit to a wrong-doer than to re- 
tort by violence. The literal turn- 
ing of the left cheek, of course, is 
not intended. When Jesus, John 
xviii. 22, 23, was thus smitten, he 
made no violent resistance, but, 
without turning the other cheek, 
mildly remonstrated against the 
wrong. His example is the best 
possible commentary on his words. 
40. sue thee at the 
law] From personal violence, 
Jesus comes to a case of legal op- 
pression, and applies the same 
principle there. Rather than re- 
sist the legal decision, which com- 
mands him to give up his coat, an 
inner and less costly garment, as a 
pledge for what he is charged with 
owing, the Christian is even to give 
up his cloak, the outer and more 
valuable garment, which, according 



to the law, Ex. xxii. 26, could not 
legally be kept over night, because 
it was used as a coverlet by the 
poor at night. 41. who- 

soever shall compel] " This 
language is taken from a Persian 
custom. A courier travelling on 
the king's business could law- 
fully impress into his service men, 
horses, ships, boats, or any vehicle, 
to accelei-ate his journey. The 
same custom prevailed under the 
Roman governors or Tetrarchs." 
Livermore. The Jews complained 
of this practice, on the part of the 
Romans, as a heavy grievance. Jos. 
Ant., XIII. 2. 3. "We learn, from 
coins and inscriptions, that the cou- 
riers in the service of the Roman 
government had the privilege of 
travelling through the provinces 
free of expense, and of calling on 
the villagers to forward their car- 
riages and baggage to the next 
town. Under a despotic govern- 
ment this became a cruel grievance. 
Every Roman of high rank claimed 
the same privilege ; the horses were 
unyoked from the plough to be har- 
nessed to the rich man's carriage. 
It was the most galling injustice 
which the provinces suffered. We 
have an inscription on the frontier 
town of Egypt and Nubia, mention- 
ing its petition for a redress of this 
grievance ; and a coin of Nerva's 
reign records its abolition in Italy. 
Our Lord could give no stronger 
exhortation to patient humility 
than by advising his Syrian hear- 
ers, instead of resenting the demand 
for one stage's ' vehiculation,' to go 
willingly a second time." Eclectic 
Review. 42. Give to him 

that asketh] The same spirit of 
kindness and submission, which is 
to be exercised toward the enemy 



MATTHEW V. 



99 



43 from him that "would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye 
have heard that it hath been said, " Thou shalt love thy neigh- 

4-1 bor, and hate thine enemy." But I say unto you, love your 
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and perse- 

45 cute you ; that ye may be the children of your Father which is 
in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the 

46 good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if 
ye love them which love you, what reward have ye ? do not 

47 even the publicans the same ? And if ye salute your brethren 
only, what do ye more than others ? do not even the publicans 



who subjects us to personal vio- 
lence, and toward an unjust antago- 
nist in the law, is to be extended to 
our neighbor in the less imperious 
and pressing claims that are made 
upon us. The command, winch is 
not to be understood literally, but 
like those before it, as a Hebrew 
form of comparison, is this : Rather 
err on the side of charity than on 
the side of prudence. This method 
of interpretation is entirely in ac- 
cordance with what is customary in 
Oriental, and indeed in our own 
forms of speech. When a father 
says to a credulous child, " My 
son, believe nothing that you hear 
reported," his meaning is plain 
enough. He would guard his child 
against the extreme to which he 
sees him exposed, by expressing 
very strongly his preference for 
the opposite* extreme, where the 
danger to him is so much less. The 
commands, here are of this sort. 
Jesus does not command us to ex- 
ercise no discretion in complying 
with the requests of others. "But 
in opposition to one extreme, he 
sets before us the other as that 
towards which we ought rather to 
incline. It would be a perversion 
of his meaning to give to every one 
whatever he might ask, — a sword 
to the madman^ money to the in- 
temperate or the impostor. " Ours 
should be a higher and deeper 
charity, flowing from those inner 
springs of love which are the 
sources of outward actions, some- 



times widely divergent, whence 
may arise both the timely conces- 
sion and the timely refusal." 
45. for he maketh his sun] A 

similar expression is quoted from 
Seneca by Meyer: "If you imitate 
the gods, give benefits even to the 
ungrateful ; for the sun rises even 
for the wicked, and seas are open to 
pirates." 46. the publicans] 

Tax-gatherers. This race of men, 
so frequently mentioned as the ob- 
jects of hatred and contempt among 
the Jews, and coupled with sinners, 
were not properly the publicans, 
who were wealthy Romans, of the 
rank of knights, farming the reve- 
nues of the provinces; but their un- 
derlings, heathens or renegade Jews, 
who usually exacted with reckless- 
ness and cruelty." Alford. 
47. publicans] Gentiles. Tischen- 
dorf. 48. Be ye there- 

fore] ' l "\\ Tiei-efore ye shall be per- 
fect." The future for the impera- 
tive, as in the Ten Commandments. 
" In Greek authors," says Winer, 
xliii. 5. c, " this mode of expres. 
sion is considered softer than the 
imperative." perfect] Not 

partial and one-sided in your aims, 
but whole, entire, complete. Be not 
one-sided, like the publicans, who 
love only those that love them ; nor 
like the Gentiles, who salute only 
those who salute them; but be ye 
perfect, even as your Father "in 
heaven is perfect. Let no aim less 
comprehensive than this satisfy 
you. As to the technical doctrine 



100 



MATTHEW V. 



«so ? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in 48 
heaven is perfect. 



about perfection in this life, it can 
be held only by those whose stand- 
ard of perfection is very low and 
incomplete. There is no passage in 
the Bible more opposed to such a 
doctrine than this, in the compre- 
hensive aim which it sets before 
us, to keep us always active and 
always humble, " asserting as it 



does, that likeness to God in inward 
purity, love, and holiness must be 
the continual aim and end of the 
Christian in all the departments of 
his moral life." This may be con- 
sidered as the sublime conclusion 
of the second part of the Sermon, 
the first part ending with the six- 
teenth verse. 



MATTHEW VI. 101 



CHAPTER VI. 

General Design. 

In the preceding chapter, Jesus has spoken of the higher 
fulfilment of the law of "righteousness" which he demanded 
in the relation of man to man through obedience to its 
principles, especially in those points where it had been 
impeded in its operation and curtailed in its require- 
ments by the low intellectual, moral, and spiritual con- 
dition of the people. He now shows how this same " right- 
eousness," vi. 1, (for " righteousness," not " alms," is the 
word in the best editions of the New Testament,) is to be 
fulfilled in the duties which were regarded as more imme- 
diately connecting man with God. 

Here, as in the previous chapter, v. 17-20, he first, 
1, states the general principle, and then, as he had done 
before, goes on to illustrate it by examples, which, in lan- 
guage that a child may understand, exhaust this whole 
branch of the subject. In your alms, which were justly 
regarded as religious duties, (" He that hath pity for the 
poor, lendeth unto the Lord," Pro v. xix. 17; "They 
cannot recompense thee, but thou shalt be recompensed 
at the resurrection of the just," Luke xiv. 14,) in your 
prayers and fastings, Jesus says, in substance, you must 
take heed, lest, looking to the praise of man for your re- 
ward, you shall fail of being approved by God. Alms- 
giving, prayer, and fasting should be dear to you, not 
as securing the favor of man, but as solemn privileges 
to be used and duties to be performed in the sight of 
God, and from motives which He who is unseen, 6, "in 
secret," will approve and reward. 
9* 



102 MATTHEW VI. 7-15. 



7-15. — Lord's Prayer. 



Under the head of prayer without ostentation or vain 
and foolish repetition, Jesus gave his disciples an example 
of the sort of prayer which he would have them use. Not 
that exactly these words were always to be employed 
by them. The same prayer, as preserved by St. Luke, 
is not in precisely the same words as here, and in the re- 
corded devotions of Christ and the Apostles there is no 
evidence that this or any other liturgical form made a 
part of the service. Yet it was undoubtedly intended by 
him to serve through all ages as a guide and help to 
his followers in their devotions. For in it he has con- 
densed into a few simple words all that we should most 
earnestly ask of God in prayer. 

u Whatever from the beginning," says Stier, " since men 
first, on account of sin and evil, lifted their hearts and hands 
to heaven, has been in their minds to ask, is here reduced, 
in the simplicity of the new and everlasting covenant, the 
last utterance of God to us in his Son, to one word, which 
will remain man's last utterance also to God, until heaven 
and earth are divided no more. All the cries which go 
up from man's breast upon earth to heaven, meet here 
in their fundamental notes ; and are gathered into words 
which are as simple and plain for babes as they are 
deep and inscrutable for the wise, as transparent for the 
weakest understanding of any truly praying spirit as they 
are full of mysterious meaning for the mightiest and last 
struggles of the spirit into the kingdom and glory of 
God." 

We may pray in secret ; but it is no solitary or unsocial 
act in which we are engaged. By the word " Our" we 
are bound to one another more closely as we kneel to 
offer up our supplications not for ourselves alone, but for 
all with whom we are connected as children of a com- 
mon Father. " We do not," says Cyprian, in his com- 



MATTHEW VI. 7-15. 103 

mentary or homily on the Lord's Prayer, "pray each 
one for himself alone ; for we do not say, ' My Father who 
art in heaven,' or, ' Give me this day my daily bread,' &c. 
He who is the God of peace, and the author of unity and 
concord, would have us pray each one for all." Prayer 
thus becomes a bond of union, not only with God, but with 
one another among all his people. Our affections are drawn 
out more earnestly towards our brethren, and we feel that 
we are all one community of souls, bound together by 
common sympathies and w r ants as we lift up our hearts 
in prayer to Him, whom we thus address as the common 
Father of us all. 

While the expression " Our Father" gives warmth and 
strength to this feeling of fellowship and brotherhood to- 
wards man, it unites us to God in the closest and most 
endearing relation. Bringing him down to us as our 
Father, and binding us to him by all the tender and 
powerful associations connected with that name, it adds 
the expression, "who art in heaven" to lift us up into 
that purer realm with all the fond hopes and affections 
that cling trustingly and lovingly to him. 

Being thus lifted up with Him into his heavenly king- 
dom, as children with their Father, we ask that his name, 
here put for Himself, the infinite source of all holiness, 
may be hallowed, — held sacred and holy by all his chil- 
dren, — that through his holiness perpetually renewing itself 
in our hearts by the progress of the divine life in the soul 
and throughout the world his name may be honored and 
revered as holy. 

But it is not so now. Here is a world of sin and dis- 
order, where injustice and cruelty and evil passions so 
widely prevail, and human governments and laws have 
not the power, and oftentimes have not the disposition, 
to restrain them and root them out. AVe ask therefore 
that God's kingdom may come, that in its outward, visible 
authority, with all its spiritual agencies and powers, it 



104 MATTHEW VI. 7-15. 

may come down from heaven and be established on the 
earth; that everywhere, in each soul and throughout all 
the world, its supreme authority may be recognized and 
its commands obeyed, and men give to it the allegiance 
which is due from loyal and obedient subjects to the di- 
vine kingdom which is placed over them. 

But the kingdom of God — this reign of laws and gov- 
ernment — does not sufficiently endear itself to us. It does 
not satisfy the heart. Even in the exercise of God's au- 
thority and the advancement of his kingdom, we long for 
a more intimate personal relation than any which can ex- 
ist between the laws or the ruling institutions of an em- 
pire and its subjects. By the petition, "-Thy will be done 
in earth as it is in heaven" God is brought into this per- 
sonal relation with us. He is not an Almighty monarch, 
however righteous, enforcing laws however just, without any 
regard to the individual wants and personal feelings of 
his subjects. His personal will, as that of a Father, is 
brought into a thoughtful, compassionate, all-subduing con- 
nection with the souls of his children. Not merely do 
we say, " Thy purposes be accomplished in those great 
events, which, ordered by thine infinite wisdom, reach 
through kingdoms, worlds, or ages for their fulfilment, and 
before which we would bow down in awe and submission ; " 
but, " May thy will, in all the minute and affecting inci- 
dents of life, enter into our hearts, control every thought 
and emotion there, and bring us into a cheerful, loving, 
childlike obedience to thee. May thy will, visiting us 
as a personal presence, and commending itself to all our 
dearest hopes and affections, be done among us on earfh 
as it is among the angels of heaven, those prompt and 
willing messengers of his goodness, who delight to "do 
his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word." 
" Here," says Claudius, " I picture to myself heaven and 
the holy angels who do his will with joy, and no sorrow 
touches them, and they know not what to do for love 



MATTHEW VI. 7-15. 



105 



and blessedness; and then I think, if it were only so 
here on earth!" 

4It is a great thing to pray that God's will may be 
donej> This prayer was uttered by our Saviour in agony 
of soul, and we know not how deeply God in his answer to 
it may strike into the very heart of what is dearest to us. 
The petition certainly means that we should give up every 
unjust or unholy object of ambition or gain that we pos- 
sess or desire to possess, and that we should strive to 
remove every little resentment and unworthy feeling, every 
darling habit and propensity which may in any way inter- 
fere with our moral and religious well-being. It may be 
also that in praying that his will may be done, we are 
asking him to take from us some of our dearest earthly 
friends or possessions ; since the loss of these may be 
needed, in order that his will may be done in our hearts 
as it is among his angels in heaven. If we think of 
these things, and condense them all into this petition with 
perfect submissiveness of soul, not only as we kneel by 
a dying friend or child, but in our usual morning and 
evening prayers when all things are fair and bright around 
us, there will be no lack of feeling in our devotions, and 
our prayers will have a holy and uplifting influence on 
our lives. 

" But he who knoweth our frame, and remembereth that 
we are dust," will condescend to our lowest wants. From 
these lofty subjects of contemplation and of prayer, the name, 
the kingdom, and the will of God, our Saviour lets us come 
down to a sense of our human wants, and teaches us to pray 
for " our daily bread." Thus, our daily food, asked and 
received from God, may become a daily motive for inter- 
course with Him, and a daily source of thankfulness and de- 
votion. The more we learn to connect the thought of God 
with even the smallest of his gifts, the more constantly will 
the sense of his goodness and our obligation to him be kept 
alive in our hearts. But while we ask for our bodily food, 



106 kTTHEW VI. 7-15. 

our daily bread, in which words are included all our earthly 
wants, these same words may remind us of the bread from 
heaven, the spiritual food, which we also need and ask to 
have supplied to us day by day. 

Not only are we dependent creatures, resting on God's 
daily bounty for our support, but as erring, sinful beings we 
turn to him in penitence, and ask to be forgiven, even as we 
forgive those who have sinned against us. There has 
always been danger lest religion should be separated from 
morality, and men's prayers to God stand apart from their 
sympathies with one another. But the most difficult and 
most affecting duty to others is woven into our daily prayer, 
and made the only condition on which we are permitted so 
much as to ask that God will forgive us our sins. And to 
bind this condition still more forcibly upon us, the Saviour 
adds as a comment to the prayer : " For if ye forgive men 
their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you; 
but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your 
Father forgive your trespasses." We have no right to ask 
God's forgiveness, except so far as we are ready to forgive 
those who have injured us. 

Not only have we sinned in times past, but as we call to 
mind our transgressions, we feel anew and more keenly the 
sense of our own liability to sin; and we pray therefore with 
renewed earnestness that our Father, in his great mercy, will 
so order events as not to lead us into temptation. Full of 
contrition for our former offences, with a sense of weakness 
aggravated by our consciousness of guilt, we turn, as help- 
less, erring children to their father, with the further, heart- 
felt petition, " And lead us not into temptation, but deliver 
us from evil." From evil, first and most of a\\,from sin, 
with the mournful train of griefs and pains which follow 
after it as its natural attendants. But in this petition we 
pray also to be delivered from every form of evil. " Here," 
says the author who has just been quoted from Dr. Hedge's 
Prose-Writers of Germany, "I still think of temptations, and 



MATTHEW VI. 16-34. 



107 



that man is so easily seduced and may stray from the 
strait path. But at the same time I think of all the trou- 
bles of life, of consumption and old age, of the pains of child- 
birth, of gangrene and insanity, and the thousand-fold misery 
and heart-sorrow that is in the world, and that plagues and 
tortures poor mortals, and there is none to help. And you 
will find, if tears have not come before, they will be sure to 
come here." And from this vast accumulation and variety 
of evils we pray God to deliver us, and rest in the certain 
assurance and conviction that he will hear and answer our 
prayer. 

Every element of devotion is here ; — praise, confession, 
supplication, ascription, even without the last clause. There 
is no want of our spiritual or mortal nature which is not 
recognized and provided for. "The true Christian," says 
Luther, " prays an everlasting Lord's Prayer." What else 
indeed can he pray, either in act or word or thought ? To 
pray the Lord's Prayer is not merely uttering the words. 
It is lifting the soul up, that it may be touched with love 
and reverence by the hallowed name of our Father who is 
in heaven. It is striving to bring heart and life into accord- 
ance with all that is divine, so as to realize the true union 
between human effort and the Divine will. To pray the 
Lord's Prayer in spirit and in truth is to live it all out as in 
God's presence and with his aid. This co-working of man 
with God, this union of earnest effort and earnest prayer, is 
the life of all that is best within us. 



16 - 34. — Perfect Trust ix God. 

Having thus lifted up the souls of his hearers into com- 
munion with God, Jesus carries them along on this high 
plane of thought, and continues to show how the "right- 
eousness " of the first verse is still to be fulfilled by motives 
which look to God, and not to man. In their fasting, which 
he does not enjoin as a duty, he directs them so to de- 



108 . MATTHEW VI. 16-34. 

mean themselves as not to attract the notice of men, but 
appear to their Father in heaven as fasting, — hungering 
and thirsting (v. 6) for his righteousness. But the love 
of praise is not the only influence that may come in to 
destroy our singleness of purpose, and weigh down our 
heavenly affections by its sordid and unworthy motives. 
The love of earthly gain must be overcome by the love 
that follows the richer treasures Avhich we lay up for our- 
selves in heaven. For Avhere the treasure is there the 
heart also Avill be; and if the mind is once corrupted by 
these inferior passions, it is as if the eye of the soul were 
diseased and clouded, so that the truth of God is ' shut 
out or perverted, and the very light that is in us turned 
into darkness. And if the light within thee be dark- 
ness, how great, the Saviour exclaims, "will the darkness 
be ! " We can then, he adds, 24, safely owe no double 
allegiance to God and the world. If one master is loved 
and obeyed, the other will be hated, or at least neglected 
and despised. 

But Jesus goes deeper than this into the secret motives 
of the heart. The same spirit which leads to avarice in 
the accumulation of wealth, may, by undue anxiety about 
the provisions necessary for our daily wants, interfere 
with the purity of our religious motives, and the sim- 
plicity of love and faith with which we are to look to 
God for our support, and to receive our food and raiment 
day by day as from his hands. Nothing can exceed the 
poetic beauty of this passage (25 - 34), the logical force of 
its reasoning, or the calm and sublime convictions of re- 
ligious trust in which it rests. Are not the life, — the 
soul, — and the body, which God has freely created and 
bestowed, more than food or raiment ? As he has pro- 
vided these greater gifts, can ye not trust him in those 
which are the least ? " Look at the birds of heaven ; " 
[which may have been flying near them ;] " for they sow 
not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; and yet 



MATTHEW VI. 16-34. 109 

your Heavenly Father feedeth them." Observe the ex- 
quisite tenderness in the mode of expression ; — not their 
God or their Father, but your Heavenly Father. " And 
are not you far more to him than they ? " While the reason- 
ing proves the assertion to the understanding with logical 
power, these words bring it home with endearing emphasis 
to the heart. There is then no cause for anxiety; but if 
there were, of what use could it be ? With all his anxiety, 
who among you could add one cubit to his life? "And 
as to raiment, why should you be anxious?" They were 
in the open field, and the flowers probably were near them. 
" Consider the lilies of the field, how they are growing : 
they toil not, they spin not; but I say unto you, that not 
Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these." 
And if God so clothe these perishing things, — the grass 
of the field which flourishes to-day only that it may be 
consumed to-morrow, — will he not much more clothe you, 
ye distrustful ones? Do not put yourselves on a level 
with the unbelieving Gentiles, who are anxious about these 
things. And then he adds, in words which bring the pater- 
nal providence of God tenderly and warmly home to them, 
even in the smallest matters, " Your Heavenly Father know- 
eth that you have need of all these things. But seek ye 
first his righteousness and his kingdom, and all these 
things will be given to you in addition." " Wherefore," 
— for all these reasons, especially as they are summed up 
in the last sentence, — "be not anxious about the morrow; 
for," — in addition to the reasons already given — " the 
morrow, like to-day, will have, and will make provision 
for its own trials." Live faithfully amid the duties of 
to-day, with a perfect trust in your Heavenly Father for 
all that lies beyond ; for by so doing you will best pre- 
pare yourselves for the duties and the trials of to-morrow. 
The evils of to-morrow will be provided for, and will be 
enough in themselves when to-morrow monies, without being 
forestalled now, and adding their weight to the already 
10 



w— 



110 MATTHEW VI. 16-34. 

sufficient burdens of to-day. The meaning of the passage, 
which closes the third division of the Sermon on the Mount, 
is, That we are to live as God's children in the present, 
giving ourselves up entirely to the duties which he as- 
signs to us, with that perfect trust in him which leaves 
no room for anxiety in regard to the perishing things 
of time which we may need in the future. 

It is impossible to describe the new life and meaning 
which these words about the birds and flowers throw into 
nature, whose creatures, perpetually fed and clothed by 
God, are objects of his care and proofs of his active, all- 
pervading presence, as they are the symbols of his good- 
ness. The doctrine implies all that is valuable in panthe- 
ism, the all-pervading, efficient presence of God, while 
over the universe thus pervaded and sustained it throws 
the kind, intelligent providence of a personal God, and 
the thoughtful, benignant love of our Heavenly Father. 

"While our Saviour would here withdraw us entirely 
from earthly anxiety, creating in the soul a love and 
faith which cast out fear and distrust, there is nothing 
of Asceticism or Stoicism in his instructions. He rec- 
ognizes the evils of life. He does not ignore or despise 
its good, things. Our Heavenly Father knows that we have 
need of them. And because he knows our need of them, 
and will provide for it, we are to place them where they 
belong, as wholly subordinate to the heavenly treasures, 
and, without anxiety or care for them, seek first his right- 
eousness and his kingdom. 



MATTHEW VI. 



Ill 



NOTES. 

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen 
of them ; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which 

2 is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not 
sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the syna- 
gogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. 

3 Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when 
thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right 

4 hand doeth ; that thine alms may be in secret ; and thy Father, 
which seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee openly. ■ 

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites 
are ; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in 
the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. 

6 Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, 
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast 



1. Your alms] Your righteous- 
ness, $tKaLoo~vvr)v, not eXerj^oavurju, 
is undoubtedly the true reading; 
and it is to be taken here in the 
same sense as in v. 20, where it is 
used by Jesus to show the sort of 
fulfilment of the law which he came 
to enforce. 2. do not 

sound a trumpet] There is no 
good reason to suppose that this 
custom literally prevailed, though 
one of the Fathers mentions it as a 
tradition in his day, " that the hyp- 
ocrites call the beggars together by 
the sound of the trumpet." But 
Lightfoot, in his comment on this 
passage, says: "I have not found, 
although I "have sought for it much 
and seriously, even the least mention 
of a trumpet in almsgiving." 
they have their reward] Have 
reward enough, — what they sought 
and bargained for, namely, the praise 
of man, and also, what they did not 
seek or bargain for, the disappro- 
bation of God. 3. let not 
thy left hand] Do it without any 
regard to what others may say or 
think, in such perfect simplicity of 
heart, that not even the left hand 
may know of the charity which the 
right hand is bestowing. Perhaps the 
fact that the alms-box in Jewish 



synagogues stood on the right hand 
of the passage into the house added 
to the force of the expression. 
4. in secret] Unseen. open- 

ly] This word is omitted in the 
best editions of the Greek text, both 
here and in vv. 6 and 18. 
6. enter into thy closet] This 
is not necessarily to be taken liter- 
ally. We may, 'as St. Chrysostom 
has said, shut our closet doors, and 
yet leave the doors of the mind open 
to thoughts inconsistent with our 
devotions. The ostentation of the 
thing is what is condemned. He 
who anywhere, though it be in a 
public p'lace, retires within the clos- 
et of his own mind, and there prays 
to God in the secrecy and simplicity 
of his soul, obeys this injunction of 
our Lord; while it is violated by 
him who willingly allows it to be 
understood that he often shuts him- 
self up in his closet for secret prayer. 
The secret prayer that is talked 
about to others is no longer secret. 
In this particular the race of Phari- 
sees is not yet extinct. There is 
a time and a place for our public 
devotions. But above all, in the 
secrecy of our own souls, by acts 
too sacred for man to see or to hear 
about, we are to keep up the habit, 



112 



MATTHEW VI. 



shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy 
Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. But 
when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do ; for 
they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 
Be not ye therefore like unto them ; for your Father knoweth 
what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this 
manner therefore pray ye : Our Father, which art in heaven, 
hallowed be thy name ; thy kingdom come ; thy will be done, 



not merely of daily, but of constant 
communion with (jiod, and thus keep 
alive the spirit of devotion within" 
us. While Jesus here enjoins secret 
prayer, he does not forbid social or 
public prayer, in which he is known 
to have engaged more than once. 
Matt. xi. 25, 26; John xi. 41, xvii. 
1-26. 7. vain repeti- 
tions] Do not babble, or make un- 
meaning repetitions in your prayers. 
" What is forbidden in this verse," 
says Alford, " is, not much praying, 
for our Lord himself passed whole 
nights in prayer; nor praying in the 
same words, for this he did in the 
very intensity of his agony at Geth- 
semane; but the making number 
and length a point of observance, and 
imagining that prayer will be heard, 
not because it is the genuine expres- 
sion of the desire of faith, but be- 
cause it is of such a length, has been 
such a number of times repeated. 
The repetitions of Pater Nosters and 
Ave Marias in the Romish Church, 
as practised by them, are in direct 
violation of this precept." 
9. After this manner] " We may 
place our little children's hands to- 
gether, and teach them, say ye. 
Well for every one for whom this is 
early done; it is not too soon as 
early as the child can cry. My 
father and my mother, and lift up 
his eyes to heaven as a child of 
humanity. How perfect is the 
simplicity of this beginning of ali 
prayer, descending to the root and 
principle, already naturally present 
in the heart, of all sense of love and 
trust for gift and help Fur- 
ther, what an inexhaustible mean- 
ing is there in the conjunction, in 
this first glance towards heaven, of 
the Father-name which is inborn 



and sweet to every child of man, 
with the universal compass of all 
tilings and the hosts of the universe. 
He whose are all the heavens, and 
not thy own earth merely, is the 
Father, is thy Father." Stier. " In 
the Lord's Prayer, which is prayer 
in its most perfect form, we are 
taught to acknowledge the Lord as 
the sole object of our worship; to 
revere his name or attributes; to 
desire at heart the restoration of his 
kingdom within us, and throughout 
the world; to resign our wills to his 
will in all his dispensations and in 
every act of his providence, till earth 
shall become as heaven within us ; 
till the external form of our actions 
be one with the internal spirit which 
rules them, and the whole earth may 
be brought to the worship of the 
Lord in the harmony and peace of 
heaven." Arbouin. 
9. thy name] " De Wette ob- 
serves: ' God's name is not merelv 
his appellation, which we speak with 
the mouth, but also and principally 
the idea which we attach to it, his 
Being, as far as it is confessed, re- 
vealed, or known.' ' The name ' of 
God in Scripture is used to signify 
that revelation of himself which he 
has made to men, which is all that 
we know of him; into the depths of 
his being, as it is, no man can pene- 
trate." Alford. 10. as 
it is in heaven] "As in the 
courses of sun and stars, so among 
the morning stars and sons of God, 
Job xxxviii. 7, there is the festal 
service of those who, active in rest, 
shout for joy in their ranks of bless- 
edness. So should it be upon earth : 
vast is the meaning which carries 
the promise in this prayer far above 
all the stir and tumult of humanity, 



MATTHEW VI. 



113 



11 in earth as it is in heaven ; give us this day our daily bread ; 

12 and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors ; and lead 

13 us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil ; for thine is 
the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. 

14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father 
is will also forgive you ; but if ye forgive not men their tres- 
passes, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 

16 Moreover, when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad 
countenance ; for they disfigure their faces, that they may ap- 
pear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their 

it reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and 



inviting and urging; all the children 
of God to restless wrestling in pray- 
ing and receiving, and fervor in do- 
ing his will." Stier. 
11. our daily bread] iiTiova-iov. 
A great deal of learning has been 
expended on this word, but with no 
more satisfactory result than that 
in our English version. Its root 
may be two words, which mean on- 
coming, referring to the day now 
coming on, and well enough trans- 
lated by our 'daily.'' But the most 
satisfactory analysis of the word is 
that adopted by most of the Greek 
Fathers, 6 eVi ovcriq rjpoov, what is 
needed for our subsistence. By the 
Word bread is meant everything that 
is required for our support, — all the 
needful things of time. This un- 
doubtedly is the primary meaning 
of the petition: but it may also ex- 
tend itself so as to include the higher 
nutriment, — those things which are 
requisite and necessary as well for 
the soid as the body. 
13. and lead us not into temp- 
tation] There is a sense, and that 
a profound one, in which all actions 
and events proceed from God. With 
this comprehensive view of the Di- 
vine agency reaching through all 
things, these words mean, ' so order 
all events connected with us, and 
so assist us in the government of 
our own thoughts, that we may not 
be led into temptation.' The two 
clauses of the petition must be ta- 
ken together : ' lead us not into 
temptation, but [on the contrary] 
deliver us from evil.' The first 

10* 



clause, growing out of our con- 
sciousness of weakness and expos- 
ure, gives force to the second. 
Feeling keenly our liability to evil, 
we ask with more intense earnest- 
ness that God will deliver us. It is 
said, James i. 13, ' God cannot be 
tempted with evil, neither tempteth 
he any man.' But this which im- 
plies direct personal solicitation to 
sin, is not inconsistent with the fact 
that, in the vast and manifold order- 
ings of God's providence, he should 
sometimes give rise to contingencies 
which lead men into temptation, so 
that, with philosophical strictness of 
speech, he may be said to lead men 
into temptation. But that is an in- 
cidental result, growing out of com- 
plicated causes intended for other 
purposes, and therefore allou-ed by 
God; but not designed by him for 
the purpose of tempting us. The 
substance of the whole matter is 
stated by St. Paul, 1 Cor. x. 13; 
' but God is faithful, who will not 
suffer you to be tempted above that 
ye are able; but will with the tempta- 
tion also make a way to escape that ye 
may be able to bear it. 
For thine is the kingdom, and 
the power, and the glory, for- 
ever. Amen.] There is no trace 
of this ascription in early times, 
in any family of manuscripts, or 
in any exposition. It is excellent 
in itself; but we have no reason to 
suppose that it originally formed any 
part of the Lord's Prayer. 
17. anoint thine head] i. e. do 
as you are in the habit of doing; 
let there be nothing unusual in 



114 



MATTHEW VI. 



wash thy face ; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto is 
thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father, which seeth in 

secret, shall reward thee openly. Lay not up for your- 19 

selves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, 
and where thieves break through and steal ; but lay up for 20 
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust 
doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor 
steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be 21 
also. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine 22 
eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light ; but if 23 
thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If 
therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is 
that darkness ! No man can serve two masters ; for either he 24 
will hate the one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to 



your appearance to attract atten- 
tion. The disfiguring of the face, 
in v. 16, refers to the habit of cover- 
ing the face with ashes, or leaving 
it unwashed and neglected in times 
of fasting. 19. treasures 

upon earth] No small part of 
the " treasures " in the East con- 
sisted of sumptuous and magnificent 
garments. " I had," says Bartolo- 
mo, " put my effects into a chest, 
and opening it afterwards, I dis- 
covered an innumerable multitude 
of termites (or ants). They had 
perforated my linen in a thousand 
places, and gnawed my books, my 
girdle, my amice, and my shoes." 
rust] fip<ocris, — a more 
general term than rust: anything 
that corrodes, that eats into and con- 
sumes what is valuable. break 
through] Prof. Hackett, speaking 
of the unsubstantial character of 
many of the houses in the East, 
built as they are of small stones and 
clay, says that " the labor of digging 
through such walls cannot be diffi- 
cult. Those who wished to plunder 
a house would be apt to select a 
place where the partition was ap- 
parently thin, and then stealthily 
remove the stones or clay, so as to 
open a passage. In some parts 
of our English version ' breaking 
through ' should be changed to 
' digging through.' " Illustrations 
of Scripture, p. 95. 22. 



single] clear, with no foreign sub- 
stance to obstruct the passage of the 
light through it. The eye, i. e. the 
medium through which the light 
passes, is put for the light itself, as 
in our common speech we use the 
word cup to express the wine which 
is contained in it. As the pure, 
clear eye is the medium through 
which the light finds its way into 
the body, and fills it with light, so 
the conscience, when it is clear of 
every foreign influence, lets the 
light of God's truth into the soul. 
But if, 23, thine eye be evil, i. e. 
the opposite of clear, no light can 
enter, and the whole body is full of 
darkness. And if the very light 
that is in you be darkness, how 
great must the darkness be ! 
Man's lower nature is enlightened, 
spiritualized, and sanctified by the 
spiritual light which comes into it 
through the eye of the soul ; but if 
that light, through the perversion 
of the eye, be darkness, how great 
must the darkness of the sensuous 
life be. There are none so mourn- 
fully dark as they who, claiming to 
be Christians, thus distort, pervert, 
and turn into darkness the very 
light of God's truth. How many 
professed teachers of righteousness, 
their intellectual and spiritual per- 
ceptions clouded by their own pi-e- 
conceived opinions, refuse to receive 
the Gospel in its simplicity, and 



MATTHEW VI. 



115 



the one. and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and 

25 Mammo n. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for 
your life, "what ye shall eat. or what ye shall drink : nor yet 
for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than 

26 meat, and the body than raiment ? Behold the fowls of the 
air. for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into 
barns : yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not 

27 much better than they ? Which of you by taking thought can 
2S add one cubit unto his stature ? And why take ye thought for 

raiment ? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; 



spend all their ingenuity and 
strength in turning its light into 
darkness ! 24. 3Iammon] 

According to Augustine this was a 
Carthaginian name for lucre or 
gain. The researches of scholars 
have thrown no further light upon 
it. 25. Take no thought] 

This word, iiepipvare, from a root 
implying division, admirably ex- 
presses the divided and distracted 
state of mind which is here con- 
demned as directly opposed to the 
entire consecration of the whole 
man to God. with perfect trust in 
him. The transition is a natural 
one from the single eye of v. 22. to 
the divided allegiance of v. 24. and 
from that to the'distracted. anxious 
state of mind which is produced 
when the simple, trusting devotion 
of the soul to God is disturbed by 
too fond a regard for lower things : 
"This 'take no thought' is cer- 
tainly an inadequate translation, in 
our 'present English, of the Greek 
original. The words seem to ex- 
clude and to condemn that just for- 
ward-looking care which belongs to 
man. and differences him from the 
beasts, which live only in the pres- 
ent; and most English critics have 
lamented the inadvertence of our 
authorized version, which, in bid- 
ding us ' take no thought ' for the 
necessaries of life, prescribes to us 
what is impracticable in itself, and 
would be a breach of Christian 
duty, even were it possible. But 
there is no ' inadvertence ' here. 
When our translation was made, 
'take no thought 1 was a perfectly 
correct rendering of the original. 



' Thought ' was then constantly 
used as an equivalent to anx:e r y 
or solicitous care; as let us Avitness 
this pas-age from Bacon: 'Harris, 
an alderman in London, was put to 
trouble, and died with thought and 
anxiety before his business came to 
an end'.' Or. still better, this from 
one of the • Somers Tracts' (its 
date is that of the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth): ' In rive hundred year-, 
only two queens have died in 'child- 
birth; Queen Catherine Parr died 
rather of thought? A better exam- 
ple than either of these is that oc- 
curring in Shakespeare's 'Julius 
Caesar, 1 {'take thought and die for 
Caesar ' ) where ' to take thought ' 
is to take a matter so seriously to 
heart that death ensues." Trench. 

for your life] ^'\f]- a 
word which has no equivalent in our 
language, and is translated life, 
in this place, ii. 20. x. 39, xvi. 25, 
and xx. 28. but is rendered soul, xi. 
29, xii. 18, xvi. 26, xxii. 37, and 
xxvi. 38. It means the vital, sen- 
tient principle which constitutes 
our identity, and which .may be 
thought of' in its relation to' our 
physical nature, as our physical, 
mortal life, or in its relation to our 
spiritual nature, as the soul. See x. 
39. xvi. 25, 26. 27. one cubit 

unto his stature] The primary 
meaning of the word here rendered 
stature is age, which is the more 
forcible term of the two. Who, by 
anxietv. can add a cubit to his term 
of life'? 28. the lilies of 

the field] We cannot tell pre- 
cisely what flowers these were. 
" But if, as is probable, the name 



116 



MATTHEW VI. 



they toil not, neither do they spin ; and yet I say unto you 29 
that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of 
these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which 30 
to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much 
more clothe you, O ye of little faith ? Therefore take no 31 
thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, 
or wherewithal shall we be clothed ? (For after all these 32 
things do the Gentiles seek ;) for your Heavenly Father know- 
eth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first 33 
the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these 
things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought 34 
for the morrow ; for the morrow shall take thought for the 
things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. 



may include the numerous flowers 
of the tulip or amaryllis kind, which 
appear in the early summer, or the 
autumn of Palestine, the expression 
becomes more natural, — the red 
and golden hue fitly suggesting 
the comparison with the proverbial 
gorgeousness of the robes of Solo- 
mon." " Whatever was the special 
flower designated by the lily of the 
field, the rest of the passage indi- 
cates that it was of the gorgeous 
hues which might be compared to 
the robes of the great king." 
Stanley. " As the beauty of the 
flower is unfolded by the divine 
Creator-Spirit from within, from 
the laws and capacities of its own 
individual life, so must all true 
adornment of man be unfolded 
from within by the same Almighty 
Spirit." Alford. 30. cast 

into the oven] The slight an- 
nual plants, which are called grass, 
are still used for fuel in the East. 
The oven is a sort of earthen pot 
(the mouth downward, and taper- 
ing towards the top) in which a fire 
is kindled that heats it easily, and 
the bread, rolled out thin, is spread 
over the outside surface and quickly 
baked. 33. the kingdom 

of God, and his righteousness] 
Teschendorf has it: " But seek ye 



first his righteousness and his king- 
dom," which reading is sustained 
by the best manuscripts, and indi- 
cates the true order in which we 
are to seek, first, the righteousness, 
and then, through that, the kingdom 
of God. " By the kingdom of God," 
says Swedenborg, " in its universal 
sense, is meant the universal heav- 
en; in a sense less universal, the 
true Church of the Lord; and in a 
particular sense, every particular 
person of a true faith", or who is 
regenerated by the life of faith ; 
wherefore, such a person is also 
called heaven, because heaven is 
in him; and likewise the kingdom 
of God, because the kingdom of 
God is in him, as the Lord him- 
self teacheth in Luke xvii. 20, 21," 
34. for the morrow] 
For to-morrow will have cares and 
troubles enough of its own, just as 
to-day has. It has no claims to ex- 
emption from evil more than to-day, 
and therefore we are not to increase 
the burdens of to-day by uselessly 
forestalling the troubles of to-mor- 
row. Do what we can, it will have 
trials enough of its own. Leave it, 
therefore, as you do whatever else 
is unavoidable, submissively and 
trustingly in the hands of God. 






MATTHEW VII. 



117 



CHAPTER YII 



Analysis. 



Most readers are accustomed to regard the Sermon 
on the Mount as made up of disconnected maxims and 
precepts. But on a critical examination, nothing perhaps 
strikes us more than the intimate relation of the parts, 
bound together as they all are, and making one orderly 
and consistent whole. After the benedictions in the fifth 
chapter, Jesus shows how the law is to be more strictly 
observed by obedience to the spirit rather than the letter. 
In the sixth chapter, he shows how improper motives 
may vitiate our religious acts, darken the light that is in 
us, break up our allegiance to God, and disturb our faith. 
The seventh chapter, after a few specific rules particularly 
applicable to the disciples, but involving principles of con- 
duct which can never be out of season, closes with con- 
siderations of momentous interest and importance in their 
application to those who would be his followers in all 
coming times. 

First, 1-5, he warns those who are going forth to re- 
generate and reform the world, that they must beware 
of cherishing a censorious temper or habit of mind, and 
especially be careful to have their own souls pure before 
they should dare to arraign the conduct of others or ex- 
hort them to cast out their sins ; lest like hypocrites they 
should condemn in others faults which they themselves 
cherish in more aggravated forms. Only purity in their 
own hearts and lives will enable them to aid others in 
putting away their sins. Still, 6, they are to exercise 
their discretion in regard to others, and not waste their 



118 MATTHEW VII. 

time and precious gifts on those who will listen only to 
what appeals to their impure, coarse, and sensual appe- 
tites. Lest, however, they should be discouraged by such 
persons, they are exhorted, 7 — 10, to look to One who 
will always hear, and never refuse to assist them. Ask, 
seek, knock, express the different degrees of earnestness 
in prayer, which will not be in vain. Therefore, 11-12, 
since God, even more than an earthly father, will give 
good things to them that ask him, they are in some meas- 
ure to imitate his beneficence, and do to others as they 
would have others do to them. For here, in doing thus 
to others with a constant and prayerful reference to God, 
is the fulfilment of all that has been enjoined by the law, 
or taught by the prophets. See xxii. 40. 

The question is sometimes asked, how far the Golden 
Rule is original in this place. Similar precepts have been 
quoted from other writers, but no one which has the same 
fulness of meaning as this. In Tobit iv. 15, we read, 
" Do to no man that which thou hatest." Kuinoel quote* 
from the Talmud a similar precept, " Do not to another 
that which is hateful to yourself." Seneca, Ep. 94, says, 
" Expect from* another the same that you do to him.' 1 
Each of these, and indeed all of them combined fail to 
come up to the precept of Jesus. At best, they cover 
only the negative and least important side of the great 
rule of disinterested and active beneficence wdiich he has 
laid down. But independently of the precise meaning 
of the precept standing by itself, he has infused into it 
a religious power which takes it up out of the region 
of moral precepts and endows it with his own spiritual 
life. The warm religious atmosphere which is thrown 
around his instructions gives them a new vitality. Take, 
c. g. the first of the beatitudes, "Blessed are the poor 
in spirit ; for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." Here is 
a precept relating to a disposition or habit of mind, and, 
as far as the ethical rule is concerned, it might be trans- 



MATTHEW YII. 119 

lated, Cultivate a lowly, unambitious spirit- \Vho does 
not see that the words of religious benediction and joy in 
which it is here imbedded lift it up out of the sphere of 
prudential or ethical rules, animate it with a religious 
life, and press it upon us with the holy and beneficent 
sanctions of a divine authority ? It is so wirh all our 
Saviour's moral instructions. They are never presented 
as naked precepts. The spiritual life which enters into 
them, and the religious sanctions which are thrown around 
them, and which mould them into conformity with the 
will of God, bring them to us, not as formal rules, but as 
spirit and life. They do not stand outside as stern moni- 
tors to remind us of our duties and enforce obedience ; 
they enter our hearts as vitalizing influences. They quicken 
our affections, subdue us to themselves, and lead to obe- 
dience as the spontaneous act of souls thus prepared. In 
this way, the Golden Rule, urged from a religious motive 
on hearts already touched by a sense of God's infinite 
condescension and kindness, is filled out with a divine 
life, which gives it inspiration and power. 

But it is no easy work to which the followers of Jesus 
are called. They are to strive, Luke xiii. 24, — dycovifco-de, 
struggle, as in a crowd and a contest, — on account of the 
multitudes that are pressing into the broad way that leads 
to destruction, and the narrow, afflictive way that leads to 
life. Especially they must beware of the false teachers, 
who would come as prophets to deceive them, and who 
could be known only by their works. Here he warns 
his followers asrainst the danger of ostentatious and heart- 
less professions. 

"\Xot every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he that doeth 
the will of my Father who is in the heavens." In that 
kingdom, and in the great day of its consummation to each 
individual soul, when the secret thoughts and acts of men 
are revealed, to the astonishment of themselves most of all, 



120 MATTHEW VII. 

dien shall theyjvho have lived in outward formalities and 
professions cling still to their old protestations, and endeavor 
by them to shut out the new and dreadful revelations that 
are breaking in upon them. "Then will I confess unto 
them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work 
unlawfulness " duo/jLiav, i. e. ' ye violators of the law. ' We 
should note the force of this word which in this connection 
shows what he means by the violation of the law which he 
came to fulfil. They who, instead of doing the will of God, 
1 trust to their professions of honor and respect for him, are 
Hhe violators of the law whom he drives away from his 
presence. 

How grand and awful these words, in which Jesus as 
the representative of the divine justice announces the rejec- 
tion of those who, honoring him with their lips, had yet 
refused to submit themselves to the will and the law of God. 
But these words of terrible warning to one class of 
offenders are not sufficient. Referring back to his whole 
discourse, in Avhich all that is significant and vital in the 
law has been condensed and set forth, by images borrowed 
from that land of mountain-torrents, and sudden, violent, and 
destructive floods, he tells them that he who hears and does 
these words of his, is like a wise man who built his house 
upon a rock, and rain and floods and winds fell upon it in 
vain, for it was founded on a rock. But he who hears and 
does them not, is like a foolish man who built his house on 
the sand, and rain and floods and winds beat violently 
against it, and it fell in a ruin great and terrible in propor- 
tion to the expectations and hopes which he had been 
building on that precarious and deceitful foundation. 

Here is the solemn and appalling close of the greatest, 
the most comprehensive and most important discourse ever 
spoken to man. The multitudes were filled with astonish- 
ment at his instructions. The extraordinary ascendency of 
Jesus over them is shown by the fact, that, though he had 
so utterly disappointed them in all their most deeply cher- 



MATTHEW VII. 



121 



ished expectations, they nevertheless recognized his author- 
ity, and were astonished at the power with which he spoke. 

It has been questioned by critics whether the words here 
brought together were actually spoken at one time. It has 
been suggested that Matthew may have put together as one 
discourse words spoken on different occasions. But those 
who have carefully followed us in our analysis will, we 
think, come to a different conclusion. The intimate connec- 
tion of the parts ; the orderly whole which they make ; 
the touching and beautiful introduction ; the body of the 
sermon freighted with profound and various instructions, yet 
all bearing upon the same subject, viz. the fulfilment of the 
law in its highest and most comprehensive sense; — the 
solemn and almost overpowering close ; are to us an un- 
answerable proof that the whole was spoken on one occasion 
and as one discourse, though there may have been a pause 
here and there to mark the succession of topics. 



NOTES. 

2 Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judg- 
ment ye judge ye shall be judged ; and with what measure ye 

3 mete it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest 
thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not 



1, 2. A general law of retribution 
is here announced. As we give, so 
shall we receive. "Justice," says 
Tholuck, " is elastic ; the unjust 
blow I inflict upon another recoils 
upon myself." He who is kind, 
merciful, and gentle to others, will 
disarm them of their severity, ana 
make them kind, merciful, and gen- 
tle to him. E*neeia11v are we to 
remember this in the judgments we 
pass on those who differ from us 
in their religious views, where we 
sometimes indulge our personal or 
sectarian animosities under the pre- 
11 



tence of allegiance to the truth. 
" It has been made known to me," 
says Swedenborg, "by much ex- 
perience, that persons of every relig- 
ion are saved, if so be, by a life of 
charity, they have received the re- 
mains'of good and of apparent truth. 
The life of charity consists in man's 
thinking well of others, and desiring 
good to others, and receiving joy 
in himself at the salvation of others ; 
whereas they have not the life of 
charity who are not willing that 
any should be saved but such as 
believe as they themselves do, and 



122 



MATTHEW VII. 



the beam that is in thine own eye ? or how wilt thou say to thy 4 
brother. Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye ; and, be- 
hold, a beam is in thine own eye ? Thou hypocrite, first cast 5 
out the beam out of thine own eye ; and then shalt thou see 

clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. 

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your 6 



especially if they are indignant that 
it should be otherwise." 3, 4. 
Only the eye that is single can see 
clearly. The faults which offend 
us most in others are often those 
of Avhich we are guilty ourselves. 
The proud man is most annoyed by 
the pride of others, and the quickest 
to see it. The offences which we sus- 
pect in others are often only faults 
of character or of temper projected 
from our own minds, and having 710 
substantial existence except in our- 
selves, the mote 

the beam] From quotations given 
by Lightfoot, this would appear to 
have been a proverbial form of ex- 
pression among the Jews. 
5. to cast out the mote out of 
thy brother's eye] Before, 3, it 
was only looking, or staring at the 
mote in the brother's eye; but now, 
with clear sight, and a charitable 
intent, we help him to put it %way. 
The lesson taught in these five 
verses is a rebuke to the fault- 
finding, satirical spirit, in which 
the pharisees and hypocrites of all 
times delight to indulge. One of 
the few legends respecting Jesus, 
which ai-e not utterly worthless, is 
to the same effect, and, as told by 
Mrs. Jameson, is nearly as follows: 
" Jesus arrived one evening at the 
gates of a certain city, and he sent 
his disciples forward to prepare 
supper, while he himself, intent on 
doing good, walked through the 
streets into the market-place. And 
he saw at the corner of the market 
some people gathered together look- 
ing at an object on the ground-, and 
he drew near to see what it might 
be. It was a dead dog with a halter 
round its neck, by which it ap- 
peared to have been dragged through 
the dirt; and a viler, a more abject, 
a more unclean thing never met the 
eye of man. And those who stood 



by looked on with abhorrence, and 
gave vent to strong expressions of 
disgust. And Jesus heard them, 
and, looking down compassionately 
on the dead creature, he said, ' Pearls 
are not equal to the whiteness of his 
teeth.' Then the people turned to- 
wards him with amazement, and 
said among themselves, ' AVho is 
this ? This must be Jesus of Naz- 
areth, for only he could find some- 
thing to pity and approve even in a 
dead dog ; ' and, being ashamed, 
they bowed their heads before him 
and went each on his way." 
6. dogs] Dogs (Phil. iii. 2 ; Rev. 
xxii. 15) stand as a type of the 
shameless, passionate, and profane, 
while swine were abhorred as im- 
pure, sensual, and obscene. This 
passage, Dr. Barnes says, " gives a 
beautiful instance of the introverted 
parallelism." In Hebrew poetry, 
one member of a sentence generally 
answers to another, expressing the 
same thing with some slight modi- 
fication : 

" The heavens declare the glory of God ; 
And the firmament showeth his handy 
work" — Ps. xix. 1. 
' Create in me a clean heart, God ; 
And renew a right spirit within me." 
— Ps.li 10. 

In these examples, as is usually 
the case, the parallelism is between 
the first clause and the second. 
Sometimes, where there are four 
clauses, it is between the first and 
third, and the second and fourth, as 
in the following: 

" On her house-tops, 
And to the open streets, 
Every one howleth, 
Descendeth with weeping." 

Isa. xv. 3. 

Sometimes, but rarely, the first 
and fourth, and the second and 
third correspond. In Matt. xii. 22, 



MATTHEW VII. 



123 



pearls before swine ; lest they trample them under their feet, 

7 and turn again and rend you. Ask, and it shall be given 

you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto 

8 you. For every one that asketh reeeiveth ; and he that seek- 

9 eth findeth ; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or 
what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he 

10 give him a stone V or if he ask a fish, will he give him a ser- 
n pent V If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 

your children, how much more shall your Father which is in 
12 heaven give good things to them that ask him ? Therefore all 

things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 

even so to them ; for this is the law and the prophets. 

\3 Enter ye in at the strait gate ; for wide is the gate, and broad 

is the way, that leadeth to destruction ; and many there be 
u which fjo in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is 



the forms of expression correspond 
in this way. He healed Jinn, inso- 
much that 

" The blind 
And dumb 
Both spake 
And saw." 

So in the passage before us : 

" Give not that which is holy unto dogs, 
Neither cast ye your pearls before 

swine, 
Lest they [the swine] trample them 

under their feet. 
And [the dogs] turn again and rend 

you. 1 ' 

7, 8. Ask, seek, knock] 

Usually supposed to refer to differ- 
ent degrees of earnestness in prayer. 
The following, from Clowes's notes 
on this passage, may possibly sug- 
gest a better interpretation : " To 
ask has relation to the desire of 
heavenly good in the will, to seek 
has relation to the desire of heav- 
enly truth in the understanding, and 
to knock has relation to the joint 
effect of such desire in opening com- 
munication with the Lord and his 
kingdom. In like manner, in the 
succeeding verse, 8, to receive has 
relation to the appropriation and 
possession of heavenly good, to find 
has relation to the appropriation and 
possession of heavenly truth, and to 
have it opened has relation to the 
communication therebyeffectedwith 



the Lord's kingdom and the Lord 
himself." The limitation to the 
promise is in James iv. 3. 
11. If ye then, being evil] "i. e. 

in comparison with God." Alford. 
13. The gate is put before 
the way, and refers to that decisive 
exercise of will by which we enter 
on a Christian course, and the nar- 
row way indicates the perseverance 
which is also needed in order that 
we may enter into life. 
14. Because strait] Strait means 
narrow, and the word translated nar- 
row has a more intense signification. 
It is from the same root — to squeeze, 
bruise, crush — as the word rendered 
"tribulation" (Acts xiv. 22), " We 
must through much tribulation en- 
ter into the kingdom of God," and 
without doubt has here something 
of the same meaning. It was a way 
so narrow as to be afflictive. There 
is almost always a contrast between 
the narrowness, the straits, the trib- 
ulation, through which the Christian 
must pass in the eyes of the world, 
and the spiritual freedom and joy in 
which he walks. life] In 

the New Testament death is often 
regarded as the offspring of sin 
(James i. 15), and life as the effect 
or consequence of holiness. The 
term death, therefore, often stands 
for sin and its sorrowful conse- 
quences, as life is made to stand 
for holiness and its blissful results. 



124 



MATTHEW VII. 



the way, which leadeth unto life ; and few there be that find it. 

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's 15 

clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall 16 
know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, 
or figs of thistles ? Even so every good tree bringeth forth 17 
good fruit ; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A is 
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt 
tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree, that bringeth not forth 19 
good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore 20 
by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith 21 
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven ; 
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not 22 

will say to me in that day] 

Here is one of those indefinite ex- 
pi-essiohs, which, like life, death, 
kingdom of Heaven, outer darkness, 
&c, have a more powerful effect 
on the imagination and the heart 
than any precise terms could ever 
have, even if it were possible to 
apply them to this class of subjects. 
They draw us into the realm of in- 
finite being. Its vast background 
of light or darkness is thrown 
around them. They cannot be de- 
fined because they are employed in 
relation to matters which have no 
bounds, and which in our present 
state of existence, we can but im- 
perfectly comprehend. In " that 
day," when the Son of Man shall 
come (John xiv. 20) ; in " that clay " 
when the crown of righteousness 
shall be given to him who has 
fought a good fight and finished his 
course (2 Tim. iv. 8); in "the day 
when God shall judge the secrets of 
men by Jesus Christ "(Rom. ii. 16); 
in "the day of judgment" (Matt, 
xi. 24), when " it shall be more toler- 
able for the land of Sodom than for 
thee," — in " that day " only those 
who do the will of God shall be al- 
lowed to enter into the kingdom of 
Heaven. When " that clay " shall be, 
or what precisely shall be the sign 
of its coming, is wisely hidden from 
us. But it has been 'fully revealed 
to us by what means we shall best 
prepare to meet it. " Blessed is that 
servant whom his Lord, when he 
cometh, shall find so doing." See 



Absolute life is absolute holiness 
and blessedness. This is the com- 
mon, though not the only use of the 
word C Mr )i which is here translated 
life. It refers to the life of the soul, 
a principle of divine life with its at- 
tendant blessedness and peace, and 
hardly more than two or three times, 
as Luke xvi. 25 and James iv. 14, 
to the life of the body. See Trench's 
Synonymes of the New Testament. 

16. by their fruits] Sol- 
emnly repeated at v. 20. " The fruit 
is that which a man, like a tree, puts 
forth, from the good or evil dispo- 
sition which pervades the whole of 
his inward being. Learning, com- 
piled from every quarter, and com- 
bined with language, does not con- 
stitute fruit; which consists of all 
that which the teacher puts forth 
from his heart, in his language and 
conduct, as something flowing from 
his inner being." Bengel. 
of thorns] "Although their berries 
resemble grapes, as the heads of 
thistles do figs." Bengel. 
17. Every good (dyadov) tree 
bringeth forth good (<a\ovs) 
fruit.] There is a peculiar fitness 
of adaption in the use of these two 
epithets, which is lost in our version. 
The tree is good, the fruit which it 
bears is not only good, but beautiful. 
A good and faithful life brings forth 
its good and beautiful fruits, not 
only in good deeds, but in the knowl- 
edge to which it leads of what is 
true and fair. 22. Many 



MATTHEW VII. 



125 



prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, 

23 and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then 
will I profess unto them, I never knew you ; depart from me, 

24 ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these 

sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise 

25 man, which built his house upon a rock ; and the rain de- 
scended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat 
upon that house ; and it fell not , for it was founded upon a 

26 rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and 
doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which 

27 built his house upon the sand ; and the rain descended, and 
the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house ; 
and it fell ; and great was the fall of it. 

28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, 

29 the people were astonished at his doctrine. For he taught 
them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 



xxv. 31 - 46. 23. I never 

knew you] Never recognized them 
as his disciples. For all their loud 
professions and words of honor and 
reverence to him, he knows them 
not. Only those who receive his 
truth into their hearts and show it 
forth in righteous living are recog- 
nized as his. With what sublime 
and majestic authority are these 
words uttered ! No king or prophet 
could ever have used such language 
without an almost insane presump- 
tion. 24. whosoever 
heareth these sayings of mine] 
To hear the words of Jesus implies 
something more than to perceive 
them with the outward ear. When 
on the mountain of Transfiguration, 
the words, " This is my beloved Son, 
in whom I am well pleased, hear ye 
him" w r ere spoken, the command 
implied that the disciples should 
hear with loving and believing 
hearts, that they should bring them- 
selv3s so into sympathy with him, or 
rather into such an. attitude of lov- 
ing submission before him, that his 
words should find a welcome in 
their minds. When Mary, sitting 
at his feet, heard his word (Luke 
x. 39), it was with reverential affec- 
tion that she received his instruc- 
tions. And this loving reverence 

11* 



for Christ is still needed in order 
that we may truly hear his words. 
upon a rock] The living 
rock. Is there not here an allusion 
to Christ himself as the foundation? 
The expression was one familiar to 
the Jews in relation to the Messiah: 
" Behold, I lay in Zion for a foun- 
dation a stone, a tried stone, a pre- 
cious corner-stone, a sure founda- 
tion" (Isa. xxviii. 16). " He founds 
his house on a rock," says Alford, 
" who, hearing the words of Christ, 
brings his heart and life into ac- 
cordance with his expressed will, 
and is thus by faith in imion with 
him founded on him. Whereas he 
who merely hears his words, but 
does them not. has never dug down 
to the rock, nor become united with 
it, nor has any stabilitv in the hour 
of trial." 25, 27. and heat 

upon that house] In verse 25, 
the Greek word Trpocrenecrav means 
to fall upon; in 27, 7rpoore<o\lrav 
means to strike or dash against. 
The two words are wisely chosen 
to describe the different effects pro- 
duced by the same temptations on 
different* persons ; falling upon the 
good to purify and confirm them, 
but dashing violently on others so as 
entirely to overthrow in them every 
principle of faith and love. 



126 MATTHEW VIII. MIRACLES. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Gospel View of Miracles. 

In this and the next four chapters we have detailed 
accounts of our Saviour's actions, and particularly of his 
miracles. There lie in some minds objections so strong 
against miracles, and the assaults on the credibility of the 
Gospel narratives have rested so much on these objec- 
tions, that it may be well here to look carefully into the 
subject. 

What is a miracle ? Not a violation or suspension of 
the laws of nature. " If," says Olshausen, Vol. I. p. 236, 
" we start from the Scriptural view of the abiding pres- 
ence of God in the world, the laws of nature do not admit 
of being conceived of as mechanical arrangements, which 
would have to be altered by interpositions from without ; 
but they have the character of being based, as a whole, 
in God's nature. All phenomena, therefore, which are 
not explicable from the known or unknown laws of the 
development of earthly life ought not for that reason to 
be looked upon as violations of law and suspensions of 
the laws of nature ; rather, they are themselves compre- 
hended under a higher general law, for what is Divine is 
truly according to law. That which is not Divine is against 
nature; the real miracle is natural, but in a higher sense. 
It is true, the cause_ of the miracle must not be sought 
within the sphere of created things ; the cause of it exists 
rather in the immediate act of God." 

A miracle, then, is not a violation of the laws of nature. 



MATTHEW VIII. MIRACLES. 127 

It is not an effect without an adequate cause, but in a 
miraculous act the usual course of physical events is 
changed, the usual succession of physical causes and effects 
is stayed, by the intervention of a higher power. When 
a man raises his hand, the law of gravitation is not sus- 
pended in its action upon the hand ; but its influence 
is resisted and overcome by the higher power which in- 
tervenes through an act of the will. If, as may be the 
fact in some cases of animal magnetism, a man is able, 
by a simple act of the will, to raise not only his own 
arm but the arms of another, in opposition to the law 
of gravitation, there would be no violation or suspension 
of that law. He would merely overcome its resistance 
in this particular case by the intervention of another and 
superior power. So if, by a yet more effective exercise 
of the will, he could stay the progress of disease, quicken 
again the stagnant current of life in the veins, or bring 
back to the physical organs the functions of a suspended 
vitality, it might all be, so far as we can know, in harmony 
with the laws of nature, and in conformity with what is 
everywhere recognized as an established fact or law ; 
viz. that where two influences or forces come into collision, 
the weaker must yield to the stronger. Now, according to 
the Gospel narratives, Christ was endowed with powers 
through which he was able to cleanse the leper of his foul 
disease, quench the fever in its fiery progress, calm the 
winds, restore the maniac to his right mind, and expel 
demons, by an exercise of the will to him as easy and 
as natural as that by which we raise an arm, or with 
a word silence the noise of playful children. There are 
no thaumaturgical displays, such as we always find with 
professed wonder-workers. There are no marks of violent 
effort. He never, in performing a miracle seems to go 
out from his usual and normal condition. So far as his 
methods of action are concerned, there is nothing to sepa- 
rate these from his other works. 



128 MATTHEW VIII. MIRACLES. 

In conformity with this supposition, there is a peculiar 
fitness in the term which Jesus usually applied to his 
miraculous acts. In the Gospels there are four different 
words applied to miracles, 1. prodigies or wonders, re para ; 
2. powers or mighty works, Bvvafj-as ; 3. signs, o-rjp.e'la; and, 
4. works, epya. The only instance in which the word repara, 
corresponding to our word miracles, is applied to miracu- 
lous acts by Jesus is where he speaks of them (Matthew 
xxiv. 24; Mark xiii. 22) as performed by false prophets, 
with whom they must indeed have been prodigies or 
wonders, and (John iv. 48, " Except ye see signs and won- 
ders, ye will not believe,") where he speaks of them as 
they appear to those who, not believing in him, could 
regard them only as prodigies. The similar word, wonder- 
ful things, Bavfida-ta, occurs but once (Matthew xxi. 15), and 
there when mention is made of the acts of Jesus as they 
appeared to the chief priests and scribes who did not be- 
lieve in him. Jesus himself never used either of these 
words as properly describing what he had done. It is 
to be regretted that the distinction which is so carefully 
observed in the original should not have been retained 
in the translation, and especially that the word miracle, 
in which the idea of something wonderful etymologically 
predominates, should not have been confined, as it is in 
the original Gospels, to the few cases Avhere such a mean- 
ing was specially applicable. This would have cut off at 
once the whole class of objections which arise from the 
habit of viewing these acts as something monstrous and 
unnatural. " The very word Miracle," says Mr. Emerson, 
in his Divinity College Address, p. 12, u as pronounced by 
Christian churches, gives a false impression ; it is Monster. 
It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain " 
But this " false impression " is not authorized by any lan- 
guage of Christ, or any name or view of miracle which 
has been used by the Evangelists. 

Usually, Jesus places his miracles among his other acts 



MATTHEW VIII. MIRACLES. 



129 



without any word to distinguish them from the rest, as in 
his message to John the Baptist (Matthew xi. o), or where 
he alludes to them by a single word, he calls them simply his 
deeds or works epya. To him, if we may judge from his 
language, they were neither wonders nor acts requiring an 
extraordinary exertion of power, nor signs, but simply 
actions performed in the natural exercise of his faculties. 
He seldom refers to them at all. And when he does refer to 
them, except on two or three occasions when the state of 
mind in those to whom or of whom he was speaking required 
him to hold them up in the light in which they appeared to 
others, he speaks of them merely as his ivorls. He never 
calls them signs, except that twice (Matthew xii. 39, xvi. 4; 
Luke xi. 29) he alludes to his death and resurrection as a 
sign like that of the prophet Jonah, and once (John vi. 26) 
he says that the multitudes seek him not because they saw 
the signs, o^/nela, but because they ate of the loaves and 
were filled. Nor does he speak of them as powers or 
mighty acts, except Matthew xi. 21, 23, and Luke x. 13, 
when upbraiding the faithless cities in which most of them 
had been wrought. Ten times in the Gospel of John (v. 20, 
36; vii. 21; x. 25, 37, 38; xiv. 10, 11, 12; xv. 24) he 
speaks of them, but always with the single exception already 
noticed (vi. 26) the same term, works, is used. 

This use of language is significant in many ways. 1. It 
gives an indication of the construction which our Saviour 
himself put upon these extraordinary acts. They were such 
as man had never done before (John xv. 24), but still they 
were only his works, not wonders, monsters, or prodigies, 
which by the very name would indicate a violation of the 
laws of nature. 2. If Jesus had been an impostor, seeking 
to impose on men by the display of such marvellous powers, 
he would have been inclined to make the most of them as 
signs and wonders, and to refer to them constantly as such. 
3. If* on the other hand, as Strauss and others suppose, 
Jesus, a pure and gifted teacher of sublime moral and relig- 



130 MATTHEW VIII. — MIRACLES. 

ious truths, never performed such miraculous acts as are 
ascribed to him in the Gospel, but they gradually, as myths 
or legends, grew up round his life in the minds of those 
who came after him, and thus became at length a part of 
his personal history, then they who put the Gospels into 
their present shape, whether they invented these stories 
themselves, or honestly received them as traditions from 
an earlier age, must always have viewed them as wonders 
and prodigies, and spoken of them as such, whether refer- 
ring to them in their own assumed character as evangelists 
or in the person of Jesus. From their point of view they 
could not have regarded them, nor could they have con- 
ceived of Jesus as regarding them, in the easy, natural, and 
subordinate relation which they now hold to him. No one 
but him who had himself lived within the sphere of powers 
adequate to such works, and to whom they were only his fit- 
ting and appropriate acts, could teach men to regard them 
in such a light, or stand as the original model for such 
a conception. And writers who had not been conversant 
with such a being, or known these to be the real facts of 
the case, could never so represent him and them, and pre- 
serve throughout on such a scale the grand but harmonious 
proportions of his divine thought, life, and acts. Especially 
would this have been impossible on the mythical hypoth- 
esis, which implies that the writers must have wrought 
their accounts of miraculous events into the life of Jesus 
from a conviction, on their part, of the superior dignity and 
importance of those events, and from a desire through them 
to make the strongest possible impression on the minds of 
others. 

Avvafieis, powers, is applied to miracles seven times in 
Matthew, four times in Mark, twice in Luke, and not at all 
in John ; <rr)fxe7ov. sign> twice in Matthew (xii. 39 ; xvi. 4), 
twice in Mark (xvi. 17, 20), twice in Luke (xi. 29 ; xxiii. 
8), and fourteen times in John ; i'pyov, twelve times in John, 
but not at all in any other Gospel, and in John, in every 



MATTHEW VIII. MIRACLES. 



131 



instance but one, it is used by Jesus himself. The dramatic 
propriety in the use of these words by Jesus is remarkable. 
The name wonders is given to miracles from their effect; 
powers, from their cause ; signs, from their purpose. Works, 
the only word literally describing them as they are, is the 
one used by Jesus. 

To him, living in the bosom of the Father, by whom all 
power had been given to him, there was nothing wonderful 
or extraordinary in the fact that he should still the tempest 
or raise the dead. From the deeper spiritual insight which 
he possessed, and the higher spiritual powers which he had 
come into the world to exercise and to impart, he regarded 
the power of working miracles as among the inferior gifts, 
not only of himself, but of his disciples (Luke x. 20), and 
declared that they who believed in him (John xiv. 12) 
should [in the exercise of their spiritual endowments] per- 
form even greater works than those which he had done. 
And if he had actually lived in the conscious exercise of 
such powers, looking out on the world of matter and of 
spirit, as with the eye of God, from the central point of life 
and thought, and so impressing himself on the minds of his 
followers, he would stand betore them as the great reality 
which they were to describe. The ascendency which he 
would have over them would bring their minds into har- 
mony with his. His modes of thought would become theirs. 
The miracles which at first awakened their astonishment, 
and seemed to stand out as prodigies, would at length, 
through his higher influences and instructions, gradually 
subside into a subordinate place, and there, in concert with 
his diviner words and acts, give their modest testimony to 
his authority. 

Here we are enabled to show the peculiar office of the 
miracles of Jesus in testifying to the truth of his religion. 
1. They served then, as they have in all ages since, to 
attract the attention of those whose spiritual natures were 
not yet sufficiently unfolded to see the moral beauty of 



132 MATTHEW VIII. MIRACLES. 

his life or to feel the spiritual power of his instructions. 
2. He referred to them (John v. 36; x. 25; xiv. 11) as 
a proof of the divine authority with which he spoke. Stand- 
ing by themselves, they could furnish no such proof. They 
might excite our wonder, but they could not gain our con- 
fidence. We should painfully feel the want of a moral 
basis for their support, and therefore would find it hard 
to free ourselves from a suspicion of fraud. But the 
spotless purity which marked the conduct of Jesus, the 
moral grandeur of his instructions, and the whole tendency 
and bearing of his ministry, give a perfect assurance that 
he could not have meant to deceive when he appealed 
as he did to his miracles. And the fact that they were 
actually performed would take away all suspicion of his 
having been imposed upon himself. When he announced 
the doctrine of man's immortality, for example, as if it 
were a fact known to him through spiritual powers of 
vision more than human, we should feel that, however lofty 
his genius and pure his life, he might be deceived. The 
habit of dwelling so earnestly and exclusively on sub- 
jects of this kind might lead him into a state of ecstasy, 
in which the conceptions of his own mind would be mis- 
taken for objective realities, or facts. But when he who 
announces such a doctrine stands by the grave of one 
who has been dead three days, and at his voice the dead 
man comes forth alive, this work, the effect of more than 
human powers of action, prepares us to receive the doc- 
trine which professes to come from more than human 
powers of spiritual perception. He cannot be mistaken 
as to the miraculous fact which he places before us; and 
this takes away all reasonable suspicion of self-delusion 
or mistake in regard to the doctrine. The more than 
human powers of action which the miracle has put beyond 
question must, when taken in connection with the purity 
of his life, oblige us to recognize the more than human 
powers of spiritual perception which he claims to possess, 



MATTHEW VIII. MIRACLES. 



133 



and to receive on his authority the doctrines which he 
announces as revealed to him in the exercise of those 
powers. Restoring a dead man to life by an effort of the 
will is in itself no evidence of our immortality ; but it is 
evidence of superhuman powers of action on the part of 
him who has performed it, and, as such, taken in con- 
nection with a life of perfect purity, constrains us to ad- 
mit his claims to superhuman powers in other directions. 
Man could not have done such deeds without assistance 
from some power or agency mightier than his own. Jesus 
says (Luke xi. 20) it was by the finger of God that he 
cast out devils, and (John xiv. 10) that it was the Father 
dwelling in him who did the works. The nature of the 
doctrines to be confirmed and of the kingdom to be estab- 
lished by them shows, as he justly reasoned (Luke xi. 17) 
that they could not have been wrought by any Satanic 
agency. They must then have been wrought by a power 
(Matthew xi. 27, xxviii. 18) specially derived from God, 
and in attestation of his authority as a teacher from God. 
In this way the miracles confirm, beyond all possibility 
of doubt or suspicion, the divine authority with which 
he spoke, — an authority which without them could not 
have been so firmly established on any just principles of 
reasoning, or by any other agencies that were likely to 
act so powerfully on the human mind or heart. 

3. There is a sense of harmony and completeness which 
the miracles are needed to fill out and sustain, in our con- 
ception of Christ. Without the superhuman endowments 
implied by them, words such as we find on almost every 
page of the Gospels would seem to us almost like blas- 
phemy. When he says (John vi. 41), "I am the bread 
which came down from heaven," or (John xi. 25), " I am 
the resurrection and the life," or (Matthew xi. 28), " Come 
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest," the w r ords seem to proceed from the depths 
of a profound humility. They are the natural utterance 
12 



134 MATTHEW VIII. MIRACLES. 

of a being divinely endowed, and condescending with in- 
expressible dignity and tenderness to our weaknesses and 
sorrows. If they had been spoken by a man of the most 
exalted piety and genius, by Milton or Fenelon, or by 
the greatest among the prophets or apostles, by Moses or 
Elijah, by Peter, John, or Paul, they would fall harshly 
upon us. As spoken by Jesus, they awaken a sense of 
harmony and repose. They are in character with all that 
he did and was. But if the divine endowments through 
which his miracles were wrought should be taken from 
him, and he should be to us in this respect like other 
men, the words to which we turn now for comfort and 
support, and which draw us so affectingly and reverently 
to him, would be emptied of their indwelling life and 
power. They would no longer come to us as the pledges 
of God's mercy and his presence among men, but would 
mock our dearest affections and our hopes. 

"When, after announcing on the Mount truths such as 
man had never uttered, speaking with an authority which 
awed and subdued those who heard him, though by those 
very words he was breaking up and disappointing all 
the ideas and expectations of the Messiah which had 
been cherished for centuries in the heart of the nation, — 
when from the utterance of divine truths such as these 
he came down and commanded the leper to be cleansed 
or the centurion's son to be healed, he was only exercising 
in another direction the same divine power that he had 
already manifested in words which stand a perpetual sign 
and proof of his more than mortal endowments. The 
whole bearing of Christ, as he appears in the Gospels, 
is simple and consistent with itself. It everywhere testi- 
fies to his identity. Whosoever recognizes the miracles, 
and enters into their meaning, is prepared to receive his 
instructions. He who understands his words most thorough- 
ly, and who enters most deeply into his spirit, will find him- 
self admitted there within " the hidings of a power " wholly 



MATTHEW VIII. 1-4. 135 

adequate to the performance of any deeds which are re- 
corded as his. For he who with a divine authority uttered 
truths kept secret from the foundation of the world, and 
who in his life so far transcended the loftiest ideals of 
virtue and holiness that ever dawned upon the soul, Avas 
only acting in perfect consistency with himself Avhen he 
did works "which none other man" had ever done. 



1-4. — Healing the Leper. 

When Jesus came down from the mountain — it prob- 
ably was not till the morning after the sermon — he was 
still followed by vast numbers of people. Among others a 
leper, one full of leprosy (Luke v. 12), cut off by his unclean 
disease from familiar intercourse with others, hanging upon 
the skirts of the crowd, and having perhaps heard the kind 
words of Jesus to them that are afflicted, watched his oppor- 
tunity, and, as soon as he could reach him without com- 
ing into immediate contact with the crowd, approached 
him, and, with the mark of respect usually paid by an infe- 
rior to a superior, throwing himself before him, said, " Sir, 
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." And Jesus, stretch- 
ing out his hand, touched him, and said, " I will ; be thou 
clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. There 
is nothing, it will be observed, in the manner of the narra- 
tive to distinguish this from any other act of Jesus, or to 
indicate any unusual exertion or exercise of power on his 
part. He charged the man to say nothing about it to any 
one, but to go show himself to the priest, and offer the gift 
which Moses had commanded for a testimony to them. 
The reason for enjoining silence may have been to secure 
from the priest a certificate of the cure before his jealousy 
was excited by a knowledge of the manner in which it had 
been effected. The certificate once obtained would be a 
testimony unto them — whether " them " refers to the priests 
or the people, or, as it well may, to both — that the mirac- 



136 MATTHEW VIII. 1-4. 

ulous cure had actually been wrought. The caution may 
have been given because Jesus foresaw the danger either to 
the man's person or character to which he would be exposed 
by the notoriety that must follow such a disclosure, or, as 
would seem from Mark i. 45, Jesus wished himself to avoid 
the notoriety and the increasing crowds which were likely 
to be caused by the report of such a miracle, and which, 
according to Mark, were such as to oblige him to withdraw 
into unfrequented and desert places. One or all of these 
reasons may have influenced Jesus, and he may also, as 
Ambrose has said, have wished to set to his disciples an 
example of the unostentatious way in which they were to 
exercise their miraculous powers. 

It has been supposed that leprosy was set apart by the 
Jewish law from all other diseases as in a peculiar sense the 
emblem of sin. All diseases in some way and degree imme- 
diately or remotely come from sin or a violation of God's 
law. But this, as the most fearful and revolting form of 
disease, was selected from all the rest, and held up as a 
proof of the Divine displeasure, and to excite the religious 
horror of men against all sin and uncleanness. The cases 
of Miriam (Numbers xii. 10-15), Gehazi (2 Kings v. 27), 
and Uzziah (2 Chronicles xxvi. 16-21) served to connect 
it in a forcible manner with the direct inflictions of Divine 
justice. " The Jews themselves," says Trench on Miracles, 
p. 177, "termed it 'the finger of God,' and emphatically, 
' the stroke.' They said that it attacked first a man's house, 
and, if he did not turn, his clothing ; and then, if he persisted 
in sin, himself: a fine symbol, whether the fact was so or 
not, of the manner in which God's judgments, if men refuse 
to listen to them, reach ever nearer to the centre of their 
life." Even the Persians, according to Herodotus, Lib. I. 
cap. 138, cut off the leper from intercourse with other men 
as if he were suffering for some peculiar offence against 
their divinity. 

The disease assumed different forms, and the marks by 



MATTHEW VIII. 1-4. 137 

which the different kinds are distinguished are pointed 
out with great minuteness in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
chapters of Leviticus. Sometimes it covered the whole body- 
as with shining scales of snow, and when these flakes were 
rubbed off the flesh appeared raw and inflamed underneath. 
Sometimes it did not seriously affect the general health, 
and sometimes the whole system wasted away, toes and feet, 
fingers and arras falling off joint by joint. " The best au- 
thors of the present day, who have had an opportunity of 
observing the disease," says Dr. Kitto, " do not consider it 
to be contagious." But when the Crusades threw hundreds 
of thousands of Europeans into Asia, the seat of this plague, 
it spread like an epidemic over all Europe, and in France 
alone there were no less than two thousand leper-houses set 
apart for its victims, who were viewed with a sort of relig- 
ious horror, "looked upon," says Calvin, "as already dead," 
and clothed in shrouds while the masses for the dead were 
said for them. 

In Palestine these miserable beings are now confined to 
a spot near Jerusalem, and to Nablous which occupies the 
site of the ancient Shechem. A little south of Jerusalem, 
" and hard by the city gate," says Williams, Holy City, Vol. 
I. Sup. p. 24, " are the Lepers' Huts. They are allowed to 
intermarry, and thus propagate this loathsome malady which 
is hereditary. And a most pitiable sight it is to see the 
poor wretches, laid at the entrance of the gates of the city, 
asking alms of the passengers, with outstretched hands or 
stumps, in various stages of decay, under the influence of 
this devouring disease, for which, I believe, no effectual 
remedy is known. I saw no case of that whiteness, which 
is mentioned in Scripture as the symptom of this disorder ; 
but I own that my eyes shrunk with horror from the con- 
templation of such misery, and I avoided contact with them 
as I would with one plague-stricken." "The children," 
says Dr. Robinson, Vol. I. p. 359, "are said to be healthy 
until puberty or later ; when the disease makes its appear- 
12* 



138 MATTHEW VIII. 1-4. 

ance in a finger, on the nose, or in some like part of the 
body, and gradually increases so long as the victim survives. 
They are said often to live to the age of forty or fifty years." 

These probably are afflicted by that variety of the dis- 
ease which is called Elephantiasis. But in whatever form 
we regard it, and whether it was contagious or not, we 
see enough in it that was terrible and revolting to justify 
Moses in setting it apart by itself, and in making it, if 
any disease were to be used for that purpose, an emblem 
of the unclean, revolting, and deadly nature of sin, creep- 
ing in from the extremities to the centre of life. The 
leper, says Trench, " was himself a dreadful parable of 
death. It is evident that Moses intended that he should 
be so contemplated by all the ordinances which he gave 
concerning him. The leper was to bear about the em- 
blems of death (Lev. xiii. 45), the rent garments, that 
is, mourning garments, he mourning for himself as for 
one dead ; the head bare, as they were wont to have 
it who were in communion with the dead (Num. vi. 9 ; 
Ezek. xxiv. 17), and the lip covered (Ezek. xxiv. 17). 
In the restoration, too, of a leper, exactly the same instru- 
ments of cleansing were in use — the cedar-wood, the hyssop, 
and the scarlet — as were used for the cleansing of one de- 
filed through a dead body, or aught pertaining to death, 
and which were never in use upon any other occasion. 
(Compare Num. xix. 6, 13, 18 with Lev. xiv. 4-7). 
u The leper was as one dead, and as such was to be put 
out of the camp (Lev. xiii. 46; Num. v. 2 — 4; 2 Kings 
vii. 3), or afterwards out of the city; and we find this 
law to have been so strictly enforced, that even the sister 
of Moses might not be exempted from it (Num. xii. 14, 15), 
and kings themselves, Uzziah (2 Chron. xxvi. 21) and 
Azariah (2 Kings xv. 5), must submit to it." 

The eminent Jewish writer, Philo Judseus, whose Plato- 
nizing habits of thought, however, allow little weight to his 
authority in matters of this kind, whenever he refers to the 



MATTHEW VIII. 1-4. 139 

Mosaic accounts of leprosy speaks of them (Unchangeable- 
ness of God, xxvii., xxviii.) as describing the taint of sin in 
the soul ; and there is little doubt that the disease was re- 
garded by the Jews as in a peculiar manner caused by 
the Divine displeasure in punishment for sin, and to be 
healed, not by the skill of man, but by the immediate 
act of God. When Jesus, therefore, healed the leper, 
he, in their eyes, not merely cured him of his disease, 
but cleansed him from his sin. Evidently this idea of 
cleansing him in the sight of the law is that which is 
uppermost in the mind of Matthew, who is writing for 
Jewish readers ; while Mark and Luke, writing for those 
who might not understand the full force of the Jewish 
expression to cleanse, add that " the leprosy departed 
from him." 

This view of the disorder, and of the light in which it 
was regarded by the Jews, will enable us to understand 
something of the feeling with which the wretched man who 
believed himself smitten of God, and cut off by a moral 
taint as well as by a most loathsome and terrible dis- 
ease from the companionship of man, threw himself before 
Jesus, and looked up to him with that supplicating ex- 
pression of confidence, " Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst 
make me clean." It may enable us to see how Jesus, 
when he touched him, and said, " I will ; be thou clean," 
must have appeared to the Jews as standing in the place 
of God, and as by the finger of God removing, not only 
a foul disease, but at the same time and by the same 
act the moral taint which was connected with it as cause 
with effect. And it may also enable us to see in this 
what is characteristic of all his miracles, that the moral 
influences are inseparably connected with the physical 
power which he put forth, so that when "himself took," 
v. 17, "our infirmities and bare our sicknesses," he also, 
in a deeper sense, as our version of the passage in Isaiah 
has it (Isa. liii. 4), " hath borne our griefs and carried our 



140 MATTHEW VIII. 1-4. 

sorrows," or even, according to the Septuagint version, "bears 
our sins, and is afflicted in our behalf." 

In its primary meaning, the expression, " be thou clean " 
or "his leprosy was cleansed," refers to the law. He 
was clean who was pronounced to be so by the priest. 
There was therefore a special propriety in using the word 
cleanse in connection with the command to go to a priest. 
But in its secondary meaning, which was undoubtedly 
uppermost in the mind both of Jesus and of the sufferer, 
it referred to the removal, not of a legal restraint, but of 
the disease itself. Whether Jesus at the same time had 
reference to the moral cleansing from sin, the renovation 
of soul as well as of body, cannot with certainty be in- 
ferred from anything that is related by either of the Evan- 
gelists, though, if the view above given of leprosy being 
set apart in the Mosaic law as a visible type and ex- 
pression of sin and its consequences be true, it is probable 
that this idea was also included in the words of Jesus. 

This passing from things sensible to things spiritual and 
the reverse, without changing the language, or changing 
the language without a corresponding change in the thought, 
is very common with Jesus, and is often the occasion of 
perplexity to those commentators who would determine 
in each case precisely what was his meaning. Familiar 
instances will occur to every diligent student of the Gos- 
pels. Indeed it is characteristic of all figurative language, 
especially when that language, suggested by immediate 
objects or events, is charged with a new meaning, and 
made to contain and perpetuate thoughts of wide applica- 
tion and extent. " The light of the body is the eye." 
"Whosever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to 
him the other also." " Destroy this temple, and in three 
days I will raise it up." " Lift up your eyes and look on 
the fields ; for they are white already to harvest." Here 
are examples in which familiar images stand before us 
as representatives of an outward and material, or of an 
inward and spiritual- fact. 



MATTHEW VIII. 5-13. 141 



5-13. — Healing the Centurion's Servant. 

Jesus had now come into Capernaum, which might be 
regarded as his home, though, as he says, v. 20, he had 
no home of his own. He only accepted the hospitality 
that was offered him. The centurion who met him as 
he entered the city was not (Luke vii. 1 - 10) a Jew, 
though from his kindness in helping the Jews to build 
a synagogue he probably was a believer in their relig- 
ion. From his acquaintance with heathen forms of worship 
and of faith, in which he had doubtless been educated, and 
which could hardly have been effaced from his mind, the 
idea of spiritual beings occupying different subordinate 
positions, and ready, as the inferior heathen gods were 
supposed to be, to do the bidding of their superiors, must 
have been familiar to him. It is difficult to determine 
precisely what idea he, from his peculiar religious associa- 
tions and habits of thought, may have had of Jesus. He 
evidently regarded him as one endowed with more than 
human attributes, whom he felt himself unworthy to have 
under his roof, but who might command his agents, as 
inferior spirits, to remove the disease from his servant. 
All that he asks is that Jesus will only say the word, 
for then he is sure that his servant will be healed. Since 
even he, in his subordinate position as a man under author- 
ity, had soldiers under him who would go and come and 
do as he commanded them, it must be that Jesus could 
by a word send his unseen agents to do whatever he 
might command. It was this perfect confidence, connected 
as it was with his sense of personal un worthiness, that 
called out from Jesus the strong language of commen- 
dation which he used. Such faith, — such a readiness to 
believe and trust in him, — he had not found, no, not in 
all Israel. 

And in this humble-minded believer, who is not of the 
seed of Abraham, he sees a type of the thousands, from 



142 MATTHEW VIII. 5-13. 

the Gentile nations, who shall crowd into his kingdom, 
and be accepted as his friends. From the east and the 
west, from the north and the south (Luke xiii. 29), they 
shall come to the feast, and recline at the table with 
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven, 
while the sons of the kingdom who reject his offers will 
be cast out into the outer darkness. 

The allusion is to a great feast held in the evening, 
where the worthy guests are admitted to partake of its 
joys, while they who come without the fitting qualifications 
are turned out from the pleasant light and festivity within 
the banqueting-hall, into the darkness of night, which pre- 
vails without. 

The image, viewed in the light of Oriental usage, is an 
exceedingly striking one, and is often repeated by our 
Saviour under different forms. They who believed them- 
selves the exclusive sons of the kingdom, entitled above 
all others to its honors and its joys, in the day of its 
festal triumph and rejoicing, when their king, the long- 
expected Messiah, should be seated on his throne and 
invite the faithful to partake of his feast, should see him 
whom they had rejected exalted over all, and those whom 
they had despised as outcasts called in to take their honored 
places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, while they 
themselves should be thrust out from the light and splendor 
and festivity of the banquet-hall to the outside darkness that 
was pressing upon them, and the shame, sorrow, indigna- 
tion, and contempt which awaited them there. No image 
could be more full of meaning or of terror to the Jews, 
than to be not only excluded from the great company 
of illustrious men, — patriarchs and prophets and kings, — 
whom they professed to reverence ; but to be cast out 
into darkness and despair at the very hour when those 
whom they had despised as outcasts from the kingdom 
should be brought in to the royal banquet. 

Jesus then spoke the word, and the centurion's servant, 



MATTHEW VIII. 14-17. 143 

whom he had never seen, was healed at that very hour. 
Here, again, we see how intimately the exercise of his 
miraculous power was connected with the high religious 
purposes of his mission. Not merely was that power 
put forth to relieve the sufferings of a painful disease 
and to reward the kind-hearted master by restoring to 
him the dying servant to whom he was fondly attached, 
but it was so put forth as to confirm his religious faith, 
and give the weight of his authority to the sublime in- 
structions by which it was accompanied, and which reached 
through temporal disease and death to the festive light 
of spiritual joy and the outer darkness, which lie in realms 
beyond. 

14-17. — Bearing our Infirmities. 

After healing the leper and the centurion's servant, Jesus 
healed Peter's mother-in-law, at the house (Mark i. 29) 
which was owned by Simon [Peter] and Andrew. Jesus 
evidently (Mark i. 33, 35) spent the night there, and it 
may have been his usual place of abode Avhile in Caper- 
naum. He probably arrived there in the morning, and 
according to the custom of the place had remained un- 
occupied through the hottest part of the day. Towards 
night, when the heat had so far abated that the sick 
could be taken abroad without exposure to its severity, 
many feeble and suffering persons, especially those who 
were called demoniacs, were brought to him, and the whole 
city was gathered together in the court by the door, to 
witness the cures that he wrought. As the evening shad- 
ows began to fall, and those afflicted with various fevers 
and violent madness we r e borne to him, he took away 
their diseases, and thus, in the view of the writer, fulfilled 
in himself the remarkable words of the prophet (Isaiah 
liii. 4). Matthew translates the words literally from the 
Hebrew, " Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sick- 



144 MATTHEW VIII. 14-17. 

nesses." But in our translation of Isaiah liii. 4, it reads, 
" Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." 
In the Septuagint it is rendered, " He bears our sins and 
is pained in our behalf," from which undoubtedly is bor- 
rowed (Heb. ix. 28), "Christ was once offered to bear 
the sins of many," and (1 Pet. ii. 24), " Who his own self 
bare our sins in his own body on the tree." 

But which of these meanings is the true one, or may 
we accept them all ? Throughout the Scriptures, as in- 
deed in all the writings (particularly those of an imagina- 
tive character) which affect us most deeply, words primarily 
expressing ideas connected with matter and our physical 
condition or sensations, extend their influence into the 
region of mental or moral and religious ideas. The differ- 
ent shades of meaning melt insensibly into one another, 
or the words are placed in such relations that we may 
with almost equal propriety regard them as standing for 
ideas belonging to any one, or to all, of these classes. 
The passage just quoted is an instance of this. In its 
primary and literal signification (Lowth, Noyes, Barnes, 
&c.) it undoubtedly applies to bodily sufferings (infirmi- 
ties and sicknesses), and therefore furnishes Matthew from 
the Messianic prophecies with a striking illustration of the 
cures which he had just described as performed by Jesus. 
But these same words (infirmities and sicknesses), in their 
secondary meaning, pass over into the region of mental 
affections, and, as expressing the disorders and sufferings 
of the mind, are properly translated, as in our common 
version, griefs and sorrows. Again, the same words may 
with equal propriety be taken in their relation to the 
moral nature, and then, as expressing moral disorders and 
the sufferings consequent upon them, they may be ren- 
dered, as in the Septuagint, by words which mean sins 
and sorrows : " He bears our sins, and endures sorrows 
in our behalf." 

The interpretation given by Matthew, which is un- 



MATTHEW Till. 14-17. 145 

questionably the true, as it is the literal one, in its applica- 
tion to the scene before him, is important as showing in 
what sense the Apostle, writing after the resurrection of 
Jesus, understood him to have taken upon himself our 
infirmities and our sicknesses. When he healed the sick 
and took away from them their diseases, then, so far as 
bodily infirmities and sicknesses were concerned, the words 
of the prophet were fulfilled. If therefore the infirmities 
and sicknesses which the prophet speaks of should have 
a deeper meaning and refer also to diseases which afflict 
the soul. i. e. to our sins and the sorrows which proceed 
from them, we are authorized by the Apostle's example 
to infer that Jesus takes them upon himself in the same 
way in winch he takes our bodily diseases, and that, as 
in healing our bodily infirmities and removing our sick- 
nesses from us, " himself bare " them, so in healing the 
diseases of the soul and removing our sins from us, he 
in like manner bears them in his own body and takes 
them upon himself. In this last expression, however, from 
Peter, as also in Hebrews ix. 28. the view which impressed 
Matthew so strongly is intensified by the great and ad- 
ditional thought of the crucifixion. 

But while the passage admits of these three different 
meanings without doing violence to its language, can we 
suppose that such language was used by the prophet in 
order that we might deduce from it any one or all of 
these different meanings ? There is nothing in the con- 
text to decide this question, and, in the absence of any 
such aid, the literal interpretation is the most natural, and 
therefore the one to be preferred in a translation. But 
is there, considered by itself, any absurdity or any violent 
improbability, in the supposition that language may in- 
tentionally be so used as to express a fact, which, accord- 
ing to our state of mind and the light in which we view 
it, may be taken either in its physical, its mental, or its 
spiritual bearings and relations, especially in writings so 
13 



146 MATTHEW VIII. 14-17. 

intensely imaginative as those of the Hebrew prophets, 
or in words made to bear such unaccustomed and hitherto 
unknown burdens of thought and life as those which Je- 
sus was obliged to employ ? 

From the beginning to the end of his mission Christ 
was obliged to impose upon words meanings which they 
had never borne before, and which, however familiar they 
may be to us, were perpetually misunderstood and stumbled 
over, not only by the Jews, but by his own immediate dis- 
ciples. The expression kingdom of Heaven was used by 
him in a sense entirely different from that in which they 
understood it. And yet there must have been some com- 
mon point of intelligence, or the expression could not 
have been used as a medium of communication between 
his mind and theirs ; it could only have misled them, 
or been to them as a strange tongue. That common 
point was the Messiah's kingdom. Both he and they 
used the words kingdom of Heaven to express that idea. 
But while he meant that they should understand it in 
that sense till they were capable of something better, and 
used the expression, knowing that they would so apply 
it, how infinitely above their conceptions was the thought 
which to his mind radiated from those words and threw 
its divine glories around them, and which by and by 
should open on their minds to enlarge and spiritualize 
their gross, earthly conceptions. There is then in this 
case, understood and intended by Christ, a double mean- 
ing, — one, the primary meaning, adapted to their present 
condition, making a lodgement in their minds ; and the other, 
a higher spiritual meaning which should unfold itself from 
the germ lodged there with the higher spiritual develop- 
ment of their natures. In this way may not material 
images, borrowed from an earthly kingdom, have been 
employed by the ancient prophets to familiarize the minds 
of the people with conceptions as pure as they could un- 
derstand, and thus keep alive the heart and expectation 



MATTHEW VIII. 18-22. 147 

of the nation through the long and desolate days of their 
preparation, till at last, in a higher spiritual light, and witb 
a purer type of character, they see in those words a mean' 
ing which they had never dreamed of before ? The sub' 
ject is mentioned here only to call the reader's attention 
to it, but will be recurred to hereafter more than once. 

18-22. — Let the Dead bury their Dead. 

A somewhat similar use of language occurs almost irame j 
diately in the narrative before us. Jesus, oj^pressed by 
the multitudes, had commanded his disciples to prepare to 
pass over the lake, when a scribe, i. e. a teacher of the 
law, and therefore a man of some consequence, offered to 
follow him whithersoever he might go. Jesus, perhaps 
seeing that motives of worldly ambition may have influ- 
enced him, announced to him his own homeless condition. 
Then another person came and asked to be excused from 
folloAving him till he had gone and buried his father. 
Jesus replied, " Follow me, and leave the dead to bury 
their own dead." The first dead is used in a spiritual 
sense, of those who, having no interest in Christ, are spirit- 
ually dead. The second part of the sentence takes up 
the word in the literal and bodily sense in which it has 
just been used. Thus there is a passing from one mean- 
ing to another, and a commingling of different meanings 
of the same word within the limits of a very short, and, 
in its grammatical construction, a very simple, sentence. 
The probability is, that the disciple, wishing to make his 
filial duty an excuse for not immediately following Christ, 
of whose success or divine mission he may have had 
doubts, and therefore asking to be permitted to tarry at 
home till he had buried his father, i. e. till his father 
had died, found his secret motives laid bare and his tempo- 
rizing policy rebuked, by Christ's suddenly turning upon 
him in its higher and more awful application, the very 



148 MATTHEW VIII. 23-27. 

word which he had used. " Suffer me first to bury my 
father." No, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead," 
" but go thou (Luke ix. 60) and preach the kingdom of 
God." It is impossible to bring out the whole force that 
is compressed into these few words. It was as if he had 
said : " If you are really my disciple, you have received 
a higher life, and it is your part to go forth with the 
words of eternal life, causing the dead to live, and not 
linger here by your earthly home, waiting till your father 
dies, in order that you may perform the rites of sepulture 
for him. It is a higher duty to save the living than 
to bury the dead." The condensed force and pungency 
of the command, which rings with such power even in 
the ears of those who cannot analyze it, is lost in every 
attempt to explain it by amplification. The force con- 
sists very much in the sudden retort of the word bury, 
the rapid change from a literal to a figurative meaning, 
and the blending of both in one with such a compressed 
energy of utterance. 

It is not probable that the father was already dead ; 
for the burial usually took place in the evening after the 
decease. But if he were dead, the words of Jesus will 
express all the more earnestly the uncompromising urgency 
of the call. 



23-27. — Stilling the Tempest. 

The Lake or Sea of Galilee, of Tiberias, or of Genes- 
areth, is about fourteen statute miles long, and in its 
widest part about seven miles wide. Except on the north- 
western side, about Capernaum and northward, where the 
ascent is a gradual one, and reaches to a height of from 
300 to 500 feet, the hills on its borders rise steep, but 
seldom precipitous, till they attain to an elevation of 800 or 
1,000 feet above the lake. Beyond the hills on the north, 
the snowy summit of Mount Hermon rises 10,000 feet 



MATTHEW VIII. 23-27. 



149 



or more above the level of the sea. The impression made by 
the lake and the surrounding scenery is differently described 
by different writers. Dr. Robinson says that the attrac- 
tion lies more in the associations than in the scenery. 
"The hills," he says, Vol. III. p. 253, "are rounded and 
tame, with little of the picturesque in their form ; they 

are decked by no shrubs or forests Whoever looks 

here for the magnificence of the Swiss lakes, or the softer 
beauty of those of England and the United States, will 
be disappointed." Again, at p. 312, he says, "The form 
of its basin is not unlike an oval ; but the regular and 
almost unbroken heights which enclose it bear no com- 
parison, as to vivid and powerful effect, with the wild and 
stern magnificence around the caldron of the Dead Sea." 
Prof. Hackett, on the other hand, says, p. 318, " For 
myself, I cannot hesitate to say that the appearance of 
the lake, reposing so quietly in its deep bed, the frame- 
work of hills which encase it on almost every side, the 
steep precipices coming down in some cases so boldly to 
the shore, the cloudless sky above, having its every hue 
and variation reflected back from the watery mirror be- 
neath, formed in my eye a combination of landscape beauty 
equal, to say the least, to any other which it has been my 
privilege to see in any land." 

It was one of the sudden gusts which sweep down 
through mountain gorges that threatened to destroy the 
little vessel in which Jesus and his disciples, with a few 
others, were crossing the lake from the northwestern to- 
wards the southeastern shore. It was in the evening (Mark 
iv. 35, 36), after he had sent the multitude away, and 
probably at a later period in the ministry of Jesus than 
its place in the narrative of Matthew would indicate. Jesus 
entered the boat just " as he was," without any prepara- 
tion for the journey ; and being doubtless fatigued by the 
exhausting labors of the day, he had fallen asleep at the 
stern, lying on a pillow (Mark v. 38), or rather a " seat 
13* 



150 MATTHEW VIII. 23-27. 

cover," which was probably (Smith's Dis. on the Gos- 
pels, p. 287) "a sheep-skin with the fleece, which when 
rolled up served as a pillow." A sudden " squall of wind," 
^cuAcn//" dvenov, (Luke viii. 23,) came down upon the lake. 
There was a violent commotion in the sea, 24, " the waves 
beating into the vessel," (Mark iv. 37,) so that it was 
hidden by them, and filling with water. The danger was 
imminent and instant. The disciples came, one of them 
crying out, " Lord, save us, we perish ; " another, " Rabbi, 
carest thou not that we perish?" (Mark iv. 38;) and an- 
other, with yet more emphatic urgency, " Master, master, 
we perish." (Luke viii. 24.) He, though suddenly awak- 
ened, mildly expostulated with his disciples, "Why are 
ye fearful, O ye of little faith ? " Then he arose, and, re- 
buking the winds and the sea, — " the wind and the raging 
of the water," (Luke viii. 24.) — he said, "Peace, be still," 
and immediately there was a great calm. 

Some modern writers have endeavored to throw dis- 
credit upon the narrative by denying that these storms 
on the lake are dangerous, and even Dr. Robinson has 
said, that in our day they are neither frequent nor severe. 
But Mr. Bartlett, in his " Footsteps of our Lord and his 
Apostles," thus describes a storm which he witnessed there 
on one occasion after sunset : " As it grew darker, the 
breeze increased to a gale, the lake became a sheet of 
foam, and the white-headed breakers dashed proudly on 
the rugged beach." If such storms were unusual, they 
would on that account be all the more terrific when they 
did come, and this circumstance would account for the 
extreme terror of the disciples. 

"We cannot help quoting here, slightly transposed, a few 
sentences from a discourse by a friend whose pure mind 
and spiritual insight, united with earnest and untiring 
habits of study, would have done much for Biblical learn- 
ing if his life had been spared. "This incident in the 
Saviour's life," says Rev. George F. Simmons in his Ser- 



MATTHEW VIII. 23-27. 151 

mon on Christ in the Storm, "lies, like the mirror of the 
lake on which it transpired, amidst the solemnities and 
eventfulness of the Gospel history. It lies by itself, form- 
ing a little picture of bounded outline. Though a mere 
glimpse, — as it were a stream of sunlight upon distant 
water, that comes out for a moment, and is over, — yet it 
impressed itself upon all the reporters ; for each of the 
Gospels has given it, with but slight circumstances of 
difference. The imperturbable calmness of the great lead- 
er's mind makes the scene itself as placid as a summer's 
day. It raises in us a momentary commotion, and then 
quiets us with the stillness of his heaven-fast mind. The 
fear of the disciples was by no means unreasonable, so 
far as the circumstances were concerned. But in the 
midst of it all, we see the man Jesus, whose name is 
to become a heavenly name to all the world, and who 
first is to go through such a cruel martyrdom, sunk in 
the unconsciousness of natural slumber. Neither respon- 
sibility nor the unquiet lake disturbed him. While the 
water was still, much might have occurred to him as to 
the danger of losing an opportunity of exhortation and 
teaching. But he knew that Divine Providence needed 
not that means should be pressed beyond their natural 
measure. A lesson for all whose care allows them no 
rest. The bed is hard ; the wind is bleak ; the waves 
dash over the little craft. But Jesus sleeps on. We 
see there the child of innocence and nature. We see 
there the child of labor and simplicity. Heaven is to 
him what the sky and air are to the natural man. His 
sleep therefore has this double side. It is the sleep of 
nature and the repose of holiness. All sweet affections, 
all good desires, the deep calm of prayer, the prophetic 
vision of piety, both natural and heavenly graces, — are 
garnered up in that heart which now lives only in holy 
dreams, — that steadfast will taking rest from the watch- 
ful guidance of the magnificent powers intrusted to it. 



152 MATTHEW VIII. 32-38. 

Too soon that sleep will be disturbed. Too soon they 
who now call to him will not be able to watch with him 
one little hour. Rest, holy child! Saviour and Guide 
of the innocent, rest! It is well for us to covet that 
capacity for sweet and perfect sleep. We should aim 
at that tranquillity which care shall not disturb; at that 
sweetness of a trustful disposition which anxiety shall not 
embitter." 

32-38. — Angelic Existences and Agencies. 

The subject here introduced brings us into one of the 
most obscure departments of theological and metaphysical 
discussion. The region of pure intelligence, and the prov- 
ince of physical laws and forces, have been explored with 
great care, and many mature and satisfactory results have 
been reached. In both these departments we have well- 
established facts as a scientific basis for further investiga- 
tions, even if we have not arrived at any thoroughly 
digested and perfected system of philosophy. But the 
border region, in which mind and matter are connected 
and acting on one another, is particularly difficult of ex- 
ploration, as is the whole realm of being between man 
and God. How the mind is here united with a physical 
organization, how it acts upon the nerves and brain, or 
is acted upon by them, so as to gain through them a knowl- 
edge of material things, are questions of great interest, 
but involved in much obscurity. Whether, under abnor- 
mal conditions, particularly when the liner parts of our 
physical organization are unusually excited by disease or 
powerful mental emotions, the sensibilities may be so quick- 
ened as to lay open to the mind new avenues of informa- 
tion, or new senses may be awakened, are questions which 
belong to a still more delicate and difficult province of 
inquiry. Allowing these preternatural sensibilities, or, as 
they seem to us, these new senses, to exist in some extraor- 



- 

MATTHEW Till. 32 - 3S. 153 

dinary instances, and that through them knowledge may- 
be gained of what is passing in the minds of others or 
what is going on in distant places, have we any reason 
to suppose that here is anything more than an extraor- 
dinary quickening of the perceptive faculties, and through 
that the recognition and employment of some new phys- 
ical agent ? Or are we to suppose that, as our spirits 
act through our physical organizations, and in ways here- 
tofore unknown make impressions on other minds, or under 
certain conditions are admitted to a knowledge of what 
they think or believe, so also we may be brought into 
connection with spirits divested of their material forms, 
and receive communications or impressions from them ? 
Can we, especially in certain extremely delicate or dis- 
ordered states of the nerves, lay ourselves open to these 
spirits, or put ourselves under their influence, so that we, as 
passive instruments or mediums, may be swayed and moved 
by them, consciously or unconsciously uttering their words, 
thrilled by their emotions, imparting their thoughts ? 

These questions, which in all ages have more or less 
exercised the minds of men, have been pressed upon us 
under new names and forms by the still unsatisfactory ex- 
perience and experiments of the last quarter of a century. 

There are two ways of looking at the universe. 

1. According to one, we recognize the existence of God 
and men, and the world of material laws and forces. Know- 
ing them, we know all that it is worth our while to know. 
TYe have only to worship God, to be just and true to our 
fellow-men, to study and obey the laws of nature. All 
beyond this we reject as fanciful and unreal, and there- 
fore unworthy the attention of a strong, enlightened, and 
philosophical mind. 

2. On the other hand, while admitting these facts as 
containing what it is most essential for us to know, we 
may believe in the existence and agency of intervening 
spirits between man and God. We know that the earth 



154 MATTHEW VIII. 32-38. 

is intimately connected with all the heavenly bodies, seen 
or unseen, bound by the same laws, acted upon by influ- 
ences from them, and that it would be left in utter dark- 
ness and desolation if they should be withdrawn. These 
bodies, reaching through the infinite realms of space, are 
but parts of one vast and orderly system of worlds, mutually 
dependent one upon another, as all depend on Him who is 
the Creator and Governor of all. Now, as the earth is 
thus united in fellowship with all the heavenly constella- 
tions, and is affected by every motion in their distant 
spheres, may it not be that we also, as spiritual and 
intelligent beings, are in like manner connected with a 
vast community of spirits, rising in well-ordered ranks one 
above another, all bound together by the same laws, sympa- 
thizing with one another, worshipping the same Father, and 
seeking to accomplish his ends ? As in all that we know 
of his works here we see his designs carried on by his 
ministers and agents, — the sun diffusing his light, the earth 
bringing forth his plants, the lightnings his messengers, 
and man employed to accomplish his ends, — so, beyond 
what our eyes can see, may not his higher purposes still 
be carried on by intervening agents, by the ministry of 
angels, and the watchfulness and care of attendant spirits ? 
As the severest rules of mathematical reasoning lead to 
the conclusion that the most distant star is affected by 
every motion on the earth, might we not, from the analo- 
gies of the physical universe, be led to infer that there 
is a living sympathy between the highest order of spiritual 
beings and their brethren of kindred nature who are 
passing through the infancy of their being upon the earth ? 
When Jesus speaks (Matthew xviii. 10) of the intimate re- 
lation between his Father in heaven and the angels of little 
children, and when he speaks (Luke xv. 10) of the joy 
there is in the presence of the angels of God over one 
sinner that repenteth, he implies nothing inconsistent with 
reason, but by those few words lights up the realms of 



MATTHEW VIII. 32-38. 155 

spiritual being, and reveals to us relations which the 
analogies of nature might suggest as existing between 
us and God's unseen ministering spirits. The fact that 
they are invisible furnishes no presumption against their 
existence ; for some of the most important agents in nature, 
as electricity or magnetism, were, in their constant and 
essential operation, so hidden from the cognizance of man, 
that for thousands of years he had no knowledge of their 
existence. 

The doctrine then of the existence of intelligent beings, 
intermediate between man and God, employed by their 
Creator and ours in carrying out his purposes, and sustain- 
ing important relations to us, is one not unreasonable in 
itself, though it belongs to a class of facts which lie beyond 
the cognizance of our perceptive faculties. 

Which of the views given above is most in accordance 
with the language of the New Testament ? The question 
is one of interpretation. In the first chapter of Matthew we 
twice meet the expression angel of the Lord, and the word 
angel occurs three times (once, v. 9, with a peculiar ex- 
planation) in the last chapter of the Apocalypse. Through- 
out the Gospels the existence of angels is constantly recog- 
nized, and it evidently enters into the religious consciousness 
of nearly every writer in the New Testament. An angel 
(Luke i. 13, 31) foretold the coming of John the Baptist 
and of the Messiah ; an angel (Luke ii. 9, 13) announced the 
birth of Jesus, and a multitude of the heavenly host joined 
in the song of gladness which welcomed that event. After 
the Temptation in the Wilderness angels came and minis- 
tered to Jesus. In the mountain of transfiguration (Luke 
ix. 30, 31) Moses and Elijah appeared in glory talking 
to him of his departure which he was about to accom- 
plish at Jerusalem. In the agony of the garden (Luke 
xxii. 43) there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, 
strengthening him. According to Matthew and John, angels 
at the sepulchre announced his resurrection, while, evi- 



156 MATTHEW VIII. 32-38. 

dently referring to the same thing, Mark speaks of a 
young man at the sepulchre clothed in a long white robe, 
and Luke, of two men in shining garments. At the as- 
cension, while the disciples were looking steadfastly to- 
wards heaven, two men stood near them, in white raiment 
(Acts i. 10), and as beings from another world spoke to 
them. 

In accordance with these accounts were the teachings 
of Jesus. "We learn from our Lord's discourses," says 
Archbishop Newcome, in his Observations on our Lord, 
Chap. I. Sec. 6, " that the heavenly angels are a numerous 
host (Matthew xxvi. 53), that they are raised above the 
imperfect condition of humanity (Matthew xxii. 30), and 
are holy (Matthew xxv. 31 ; Mark viii. 38), glorious (Luke 
ix. 26), and immortal (Luke xx. 36) beings; that they 
are acquainted (Matthew xxiv. 36 ; Mark xiii. 32) with 
many of God's counsels, though not with all, that they 
are occasionally ministering spirits to mankind, both in 
this life (Matthew xviii. 10) and the next (Luke xvi. 22) ; 
that at the last day our Lord will come to judgment, and 
all the holy angels with him (Matthew xxv. 31), and 
that in their presence he will confess those (Luke xii. 8, 9) 
who boldly confess him before men, and deny those who 
timidly deny him." 

It is impossible to explain these expressions away as 
figurative on any just grounds of interpretation. The 
language both of Jesus and of the Evangelists is often 
specific and minute ; it is used, not merely in passages of 
an imaginative and poetical character, but in the plainest 
historical details, and is applied under circumstances which 
admit of no other construction. Where there is no specific 
and formal reference to them, their existence is sometimes 
implied by undesigned and spontaneous allusions which 
show how the thought of them entered into the religious 
conceptions, and made a part of what is called the re- 
ligious consciousness of Jesus and the Evangelists. 



MATTHEW VIII. 28-34. 157 

28 - 34. — Evil and Disorderly Spirits. 

But what shall we say of the existence and agency 
of other spirits than those of an angelic character ? The 
subject has already been opened in the chapter on the 
Temptation in the Wilderness. To deny the existence 
of evil spirits is not to destroy the kingdom of evil. So 
long as sin actually exists in the world, and evil spirits 
are allowed to dwell as wicked men in human bodies, 
and under the limitations and restraints of our nature, the 
moral objection to the existence of evil or disorderly spirits 
under other forms is wholly without force. The objection 
lies against sin itself and its fatal influences. But as sin 
does exist and prevail, why may it. not show itself in other 
modes of being as well as in that with which we are familiar ? 
By denying the existence of the devil, we, as Goethe says, 
" get rid of the wicked one, but the wicked ones remain." 
Besides, what becomes of all the wicked men who are 
constantly going from this present mode of life to another ? 
"We cannot suppose the bare act of dying, or changing 
the form of life, to work an essential change of character, 
and transform them from sin to holiness. If they exist 
at all, they exist, at least for a time, as evil spirits. Are 
they then permitted to go at large for a season ? As in 
this world good and bad grow up together, and are open to 
influences whether of good or of evil from one another, 
as a bad man often is permitted to have access to inno- 
cent minds and to corrupt their virtue, may it not also 
be, as Swedenborg has supposed, in those modes of being 
which lie next beyond us, that the good and the bad are 
for a season allowed to live, to be employed in their 
different spheres, and, within the rules and limits estab- 
lished by the all-wise Creator and Ruler of all, to labor 
for the establishment of their kingdom, and to hold out 
its influences to those who are still upon the earth, that 
they may receive or reject them ? May there not be a 

14 



158 MATTHEW VIII. 28-34. 

kingdom of evil as well as a kingdom of righteousness 
having its seat beyond us, but, within the conditions and 
limitations assigned by God, reaching down its poisonous 
influences into the sphere of our human interests and re- 
lations ? 

The great and terrible fact that sin with its baleful 
influences does exist cannot be denied. Its enticements 
and seductions, its pestilence that walketh in darkness, 
and its destruction that wasteth at noonday, meet us at 
every turn. The world groans under a sense of the degra- 
dation and misery and sorrows which it inflicts. Where 
is its source ? In the soul of man or in the world beyond ? 
Is there a kingdom of darkness, — the devil and his angels, 
as there is a kingdom of- light, — the Son of Man and the 
holy angels with him? When Christ came to save the 
world from sin, did he have to contend only with wicked 
men, their passions and crimes, and to infuse into men's 
minds the elements of a diviner life ? Or did he have 
to contend with and overthrow a kingdom of darkness, 
lying beyond this world, and yet intimately associated with 
it, sending out its emissaries of wrong with every form of 
temptation to take advantage of the weaknesses of our 
nature and lead us into sin ? Did the Prince of Dark- 
ness with his agents, recognizing Jesus as one who had 
come to destroy their kingdom, meet him in the wilder- 
ness, follow him through his ministry, incite Judas to betray 
him, and throw every obstruction that they could in his 
path ? By the reference which Jesus so often makes to 
Satan, his kingdom, and his messengers ; in the terrible 
depth of his anguish at Gethsemane and his cry of desola- 
tion upon the cross ; are we to recognize merely the ex- 
istence of sin in its impersonal influence and authority, 
seated deeply in the heart of the race, and incorporated 
into all its institutions and habits ; or are we also to rec- 
ognize a Prince of Darkness with his attendant and obe- 
dient subjects constituting a kingdom of iniquity, and per- 



MATTHEW VIII. 28-34. 159 

mitted for a season, in the wise providence of God, to 
range at large through the world ? 

In this supposition we are always to remember that 
wicked ones are not omnipotent because they are spirit- 
ual, and that, as wicked men here, so wicked spirits there, 
must be limited by the laws of God, and by the very 
conditions of their being, in the sphere and mode of their 
operations. The moral freedom of man, which God him- 
self respects in all his dealings with him for his salva- 
tion, he will unquestionably constrain wicked spirits to 
respect and leave untouched in all their efforts to injure 
and destroy him. Whatever Jesus may have taught in 
regard to the agency of evil spirits, the whole force of 
his instructions goes to show, that, if we only are on our 
guard, they can have no influence over us for evil. 

The question of the existence and agency of evil spirits, 
like that of good spirits, is not one embarrassed by any 
physical impossibility or moral improbability. It is simply 
a question of fact, which lies open to evidence, and is to 
be treated by commentators on the New Testament as 
a question of interpretation. What then is taught by Jesus 
on this subject ? In the account of the Temptation, which 
must have been derived from him, he speaks of Satan as 
a personal being. The wicked one (Matthew xiii. 19), 
Satan (Mark iv. 15), and the devil (Luke viii. 12), are 
used as equivalent terms. Jesus (John viii. 44) tells the 
Jews that they are of their father the devil, and (Matthew 
xii. 26) he speaks of Satan as establishing a kingdom in 
opposition to the kingdom of God. He speaks (John 
xiy. 30) of the prince of this world, who hath nothing 
in him, who (John xvi. 11) is judged, and (John xii. 31) 
shall be cast out. He says (Luke x. 17, 18), "I beheld 
Satan as lightning fall from heaven," and (Matthew xxv. 41) 
he speaks of the " everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
and his angels." 

It is possible that this may be figurative language, used 



160 MATTHEW VIII. 23-34. 

to express in vivid terms the power of evil. But in read 
ing the Gospels, and the whole of the New Testament 
with care, seeking, without any prepossessions on our part, 
to enter into the conception of Christ and his disciples 
on this subject, we should hardly fail to infer that, to 
their minds, Satan and his angels were personal beings, 
acting in opposition to them, and exercising a dominion 
which it was Christ's office to overthrow. The language 
of the New Testament, its direct expressions and indirect 
allusions, harmonize more readily with this than with any 
other hypothesis. For further considerations, see chapter 
xiii. 39. 

There is still another class of beings referred to in 
language which is to be taken either literally or figura- 
tively. As there are the Son of Man and the holy angels 
with him, and the devil and his angels, so there are 
demons, SaifjLovui or daifioves, and demoniacs, or persons sup- 
posed to be possessed by demons. The word Devil, see 
Whately on " Good and Evil Spirits," pp. 57, 80, is a 
proper name, always in the singular number. Wherever 
the word devils occurs in the New Testament it should 
read demons, that being the word in the original. It is 
unfortunate that in our version these beings are called 
devils. They were considered by the Jews to be dis- 
orderly, mischievous, and, as they are sometimes called 
(Matthew x. 1, xii. 43, Mark iii. 11, 30, &c), unclean 
spirits. The idea seems to have been, that they were 
wandering about the earth, seeking, as the language of 
Jesus (Matthew xii. 43 - 45) suggests, a dwelling-place in 
some human being, whose will they might control, and 
whose mental and physical organs they might succeed in 
subordinating to their own uses. 

Two different views of this subject have been taken. 

On the one side, it has been maintained, that demoniacs 
were persons affected by nervous diseases of different 
kinds, especially when those diseases were so severe as 



MATTHEW VIII. 28-34. 161 

to unsettle the powers of reason and of self-control. In 
short, they were either subject to fits, or belonged to that 
large class of sufferers who now find a home, and often, 
from physical and moral treatment combined, a cure, in 
our hospitals for the insane. 

The other view is, that while the demoniacs were un- 
questionably diseased, suffering particularly from those ner- 
vous affections which are induced by sensual indulgence, 
and through which the whole system, physical, mental, 
and moral, is disordered and deranged, they were actually 
besieged and taken possession of by these mischievous 
spirits, who were wandering about in quest of a dweiling- 
place. The spirits, taking advantage of the utter dis- 
harmony in their natures, enter through the rents that 
have been made, usurp the place which their own wills 
have held so unsteadily, and exercise over them in body 
and mind a control more or less entire according to the 
degree of disorder and incapacity that they find. These 
unhappy victims of demoniacal influence are not repre- 
sented as adepts in sin. They are not wholly given over 
to what is evil. They are rather imbecile, or without 
self-control, given over perhaps to habits of sensual in- 
dulgence, and the disorders growing out of it, with a per- 
ception, as the Gadarene had, of their unhappiness, but 
waging a feeble war against temptation, and making a 
feeble and therefore ineffectual resistance to the tyrannous 
power which has taken possession of them, and which 
substitutes his will and at times his consciousness in the 
place of theirs. He inflames their passions, arms them, 
as paroxysms of insanity sometimes arm men now, with 
an almost preternatural strength, drives them into unfre- 
quented and desolate places, weans them from the compan- 
ionship of man, fills them with delusions and evil thoughts, 
or forces them to isolate themselves in the midst of their 
friends by refusing to see or to speak. 

In support of the opinion that these cases as described 

14* 



162 MATTHEW VIII. 28-34. 

in the New Testament are only cases of insanity and 
other severe diseases, particularly nervous affections, it is 
said, — 1. That language similar to that which is applied 
to these cases in the New Testament was applied by 
classical writers of Greece (Xenophon, Mem. I. 9 ; Aristoph. 
Plut. II. 3, 38) to sick persons who were to be cured by 
medical prescriptions. 2. That the symptoms, as they are 
brought out in the narratives, are such as truly describe 
those classes of diseases. 3. That the Evangelists apply 
the same language to sick, melancholy, and insane per- 
sons; e. g. (John x. 20), "He hath a demon, and is 
mad." 4. That as the Jews were accustomed to attribute 
all effects proceeding from unknown causes to invisible 
personal agents, they attributed these mysterious diseases 
particularly to demons, and Jesus and his disciples, in 
speaking of them as they did, only used the popular lan- 
guage by which those diseases were generally designated, 
just as we use the words lunatic (moonstruck), sunrise, 
and sunset, without any regard to their literal and erroneous 
meaning. 5. The demoniacs are the only insane persons 
whom Jesus is said in the Gospels to have cured, which 
is very remarkable, if the' two words, demoniacs and in- 
sane, do not describe the same class of sufferers. 6. If 
these were really cases of demoniacal possession, how 
happens it that they were so numerous then, and so en- 
tirely unknown now ? 

On the other side it is said, — 1. That as these cases 
were usually attended by disease, the medical prescrip- 
tions were not out of place ; and, 2. Of course the symp- 
toms would, for the most part, be such as would characterize 
the disease, whatever it might be. 3. That in the ex- 
pression (John x. 20), " He has a demon, and is mad," 
there is no more reason to consider the second clause 
an explanation of the first than in the expression, " He 
has a fever, and is delirious." Considering how general 
and unqualified the belief in demoniacal influences was 



MATTHEW VIII. 28-34. 163 

among the Jews, there can be no doubt that they in 
their anger against Jesus did intend to describe him as 
one possessed by an evil spirit, and therefore raving, when 
he spoke to them in language so utterly beyond their 
comprehension. 4. Though Jesus often used the popular 
language without stopping to explain the errors involved 
in it, yet he applies this language to demoniacs in ways 
and under circumstances hardly consistent with his per- 
fect veracity, if he knew that they were only cases of 
insanity. Let any one read carefully the whole passage 
(Luke xi. 14- 2G), and ask whether on such a supposition 
this language is quite consistent with our ideas of perfect 
truthfulness. Even if the first part of the passage should 
be regarded as an argumentum ad hominem, reasoning 
with the Jews on their own ground, as it might be, it 
is impossible so to understand the last three verses, where 
he describes the unclean spirit, after he is gone out of a 
man, as wandering through deserts, in* search of a resting- 
place, and finding none. Not only in public, but in private 
conversations with his disciples, Jesus uses similar lan- 
guage. In private directions to them, he says (Matthew 
x. 8), not "heal demoniacs," but "cast out demons," and 
(xvii. 21) when they come to him confidentially for in- 
structions in regard to a case of this kind over which 
they had no power, he says, " This kind goeth not out 
but by prayer and fasting," — language which must have 
confirmed them in the belief that it was a case of de- 
moniacal possession, and which it is very difficult to recon- 
cile with his veracity unless he so regarded it. 5. To the 
question why demoniacs were so common then, and so 
unknown now, the reply is, that, in the moral as in the 
physical world, particular periods are marked by the preva- 
lence of particular forms of evil. Why was the plague 
of Athens, of Florence, or of London a disease so fatal 
once, and so unknown now ? " In looking over the past 
history of the world, with reference to this kind of phe- 



164 MATTHEW VIII. 28-34. 

nomena," says an able Swedenborgian writer, Hayden on 
Spiritualism, p. 43, " we shall find that they have been 
exceedingly active in periods preceding great changes in 
the religious state of the world, and have been the fore- 
runners of events that have powerfully affected the minds 
of men on a variety of subjects, especially in regard to 
their religious sentiments." If such beings do exist around 
us, we should expect them to show their power most of 
all in a time of moral disorder and chaos like that which 
preceded our Saviour's coming, and be excited by the 
fiercest desire to extend their power over men at the 
time when he was about to put down these disorderly 
agents, and establish the kingdom of Heaven. " If," says 
Trench, on The Miracles, p. 134, "there was anything 
that marked the period of our Lord's coming in the flesh, 
and that immediately succeeding, it was the wreck and 
confusion of men's spiritual life which was then, the sense 

of utter disharmony, with the tendency to rush 

with a frantic eagerness into sensual enjoyments as the 

refuge from despairing thoughts It was exactly 

the crisis for such soul maladies as these, in which the 
spiritual and the bodily should be thus strangely inter- 
linked, and it is nothing wonderful that they should have 
abounded at that time ; for the predominance of certain 
spiritual maladies at certain epochs of the world's history 
which were specially fitted for their generation, with their 
gradual decline and disappearance in others less congenial 
to them, is a fact itself admitting no manner of question." 
"We must not," says Neander, "Life of Jesus," p. 146, 
" take the spirit of an age of materialism or rationalism 
as a rule for judging of all phenomena of the tyvxn 
[soul] which veils within itself the Infinite, which is 
capable of such manifold excitement, and whose various 
powers are alternately dormant and active, — now one pre- 
vailing, and now another." If it was one important part 
of the mission of Christ to overthrow here the dominion of 



MATTHEW Till. 2S - 34. 165 

evil spirits, and to break up their dangerous intercourse 
with man, this alone will account for the fact that such 
moral disorders as demoniacal possessions should no longer 
be found. 6. Such expressions as (Mark i. 34) are hardly 
consistent with any other conception on the part of the 
writer than that of an actual possession by demons ; Jesus 
'• did not suffer the demons to speak, because they knew him" 

The argument is not decisive on either side. Each per- 
son will be likely to adopt that view which accords best 
with his opinions in regard to the existence and influence 
of spirits. If we believe in the ministry of angels, — that 
the spirits of the departed may still linger for a season 
near their accustomed abodes and friends, — if we believe 
that " this world of ours stands not isolated, not rounded 
and complete in itself, but in living relation with two 
worlds," a higher and a lower, — that we are not only to 
welcome every impression from the world above, but to 
keep the gate of the soul closed against influences from 
the world below, — we shall find no difficulty in admitting, 
that at that momentous crisis when the moral faculties 
of the race were so dislocated and disordered, evil and 
unruly spirits may have had an extraordinary sway, and 
that just at the time when their kingdom was about to 
receive a blow which must prove fatal in the end, they 
may have been excited to put forth unusual efforts in 
order to fortify and extend their authority. 

This view of the case seems to us upon the whole best 
to harmonize the different terms used in the New Testa- 
ment, both those directly connected with demoniacal pos- 
sessions, and those which refer in different relations to 
the connection between this and other worlds. We have 
very little doubt that this was the belief of the Evan- 
gelists themselves. Whether it was entertained by Jesus 
is not so certain. The whole subject is an obscure one. It 
can be known to us only through a divine revelation. 
From its very nature, and our acknowledged ignorance 



166 MATTHEW VIII. 28-34. 

of such matters, we must expect to find in it things which 
we cannot fully comprehend. 

We shall endeavor to explain the narrative before us, 
28-34, in accordance with each of these views. On the 
first supposition we may say that the symptoms, as they 
are minutely described in Luke viii. 26-37, and more 
vividly still in Mark v. 1-17, are those of extreme in- 
sanity. The fierce and habitual violence, the almost pre- 
ternatural strength, the shrinking from the society of men, 
living naked among the sepulchres and in the mountains, 
the savage outcries, and fierce tearing of his flesh with 
stones, are symptoms of the most violent insanity. So is 
his double consciousness, speaking now in his own person, 
as when he came and threw himself down before Jesus, 
and then, in the violence of the struggle which ensued 
when Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out of 
him, speaking in the person of the spirit, and afterwards 
in his still more violent ravings identifying himself with 
an army of demons by whom he supposes himself to be 
possessed. These are the wild, rapid, inconsistent starts 
of a madman. The whole narrative, so natural and life- 
like, bears indisputable marks of truth. Even the transfer 
of the disease to the swine is as easily accounted for on 
this supposition as on any. Perhaps there is no one 
feature of the case which may not be thus explained, ex- 
cept his recognition of Jesus as the Son of the Most High 
God, and his falling down in reverence before him. It 
is possible, but very improbable, that in his fierce and iso- 
lated condition he should have heard reports to produce 
such an impression on his mind. 

We will now explain it on the other theory. We will 
suppose that, in addition to the insanity which had been 
brought upon himself and aggravated in all its symptoms 
by habits of sensual indulgence and the attendant disorders 
of his inward life, he was actually possessed by a demon 
whom he, having once admitted, has no longer the power 



MATTHEW VIII. 28-34. 167 

to expel. This evil spirit has taken possession of his 
faculties, fills out his consciousness, excites in him the 
fiercest enmities and passions, drives him away from the 
abodes of men, and subordinates his nature to his own 
mischievous and disorderly will. There may be moments 
of awakening consciousness, when the despotic tyranny 
is relaxed, and the poor man returns to himself and feels 
his misery. Such a moment may have come, when the 
spirit, recognizing with awe the presence of Jesus, was 
thrown off* his guard, and the man, thus made aware 
of the character of Christ and seizing at once on the 
hope of deliverance, ran and threw himself at his feet. 
But immediately the spirit regained his control, the frenzy 
returned upon his victim, and believing himself now to be 
the demon by whom he was possessed, the act of homage 
by which he had, thrown himself down in the hope of re- 
lief was turned into a fierce cry of rage and despair. 
" What hast thou to do with me, Jesus, thou Son of the 
Most High God. Hast thou come hither to torment me 
before the time ? I adjure thee by God, torment me not." 
For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come 
out of the man. Then, as if to call him to himself, Jesus 
asked him his name. But the power that had dominion 
over him was not then relaxed, and, as if he were a whole 
army of demons, he said, " Legion is my name." And 
still, under the same control, in the person of the demons 
whom he supposes himself to be and whose words he 
speaks, he besought Jesus that he would not (Mark v. 10) 
send them away out of the place, or command them (Luke 
viii. 31) to go out into the abyss, but allow them to entei* 
a vast herd of swine that w T as feeding in the distance 
(Matthew viii. 30) there on the mountain near the sea 
(Mark v. 11). The request is not refused. The swine, 
seized with a sudden fury, rush headlong down the preci-. 
pice into the sea, and perish in the waters. 

The whole account, on this supposition, is perfectly natu-> 



168 MATTHEW VIII. 28-34. 

ral and consistent. It places before us in terrible colors 
the features of that disjointed and discordant life which 
must belong to a human being subjected to such a for- 
eign control before his whole nature is consciously and 
voluntarily surrendered to what is evil. 

There are one or two remarkable expressions here 
which, on this supposition, may throw a little light on a 
dark and difficult subject. " What hast thou to do with 
us (Matthew viii. 29), Jesus, thou Son of God?" indicates 
their knowledge of Christ as of a superior being who 
has authority over them. But how could the maniac have 
known him by this title ? The second clause of the same 
sentence, " Hast thou come to torment us before the time ? " 
would seem to indicate that they knew that they could 
be allowed to range at liberty only for a season. The 
same fact is also indicated yet more strongly by their 
beseeching Jesus (Luke viii. 31) that he would not com- 
mand them to go out into the deep, the abyss, which 
word, wherever it is used in the New Testament, refers 
to the abode of the dead (Romans x. 7) or the abode of 
wicked spirits (Rev. ix. 1, 2, 11 ; xi. 7 ; xvii. 8 ; xx. 1, 3). 
The same idea is probably implied in the request of the 
demons (Mark v. 10), that Jesus would not send them 
out of the place. The inference is that these spirits, who 
were perhaps, as Swedenborg asserts, the souls of de- 
parted men, were allowed to linger for a time about the 
earth before they entered the abyss. 

It ought to be added that this is the strongest case to 
be found in the Gospels, on the side of actual demon- 
iacal possession. 



MATTHEW VIII. 



169 



NOTES 



When he -was come clown from the mountain, great multi- 

2 tudes followed him. And, behold, there came a leper and 
worshipped him, saving, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make 

3 me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, 
saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy 

4 was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no 
man ; but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the 
gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 

5 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came 

6 unto him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my 
servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously torment- 

7 ed. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 

8 The centurion answered and said : Lord, I am not worthy that 
thou shouldest come under my roof; but speak the word only, 

9 and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under author- 
ity, having soldiers under me ; and I say to this man, Go, and 
he goeth ; and to another, Come, and he cometh ; and to my 

10 servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he 
marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto 

H you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I 
say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, 
and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in 



5. there came unto him a 
centurion] In the Roman army 
for a long time each legion contained 
sixty centuriae, and each centuria, 
as the name implies, was supposed 
to consist of a hundred men. The 
commander of one of these com- 
panies was called a centurion, and 
according to Polybius (VI. 24), he 
was usually remarkable less for his 
daring valor than for his calmness 
and sagacity. He sat as a judge in 
minor offences, and was, of course, 
in a province like Galilee, a man 
of considerable distinction and im- 
portance. According to Luke (vii. 
1-10), the centurion sent elders of 
the Jews to Jesus, and did not him- 
self meet him, till Jesus had come 
near his house, when he spoke to 
him substantially as here in verses 
15 



8 and 9. It is not unusual to repre- 
sent a man as doing himself what he 
does through others. 6. Lord] 

A term by which, according to Gro- 
tius and* Kuinoel, the Jews Avere 
accustomed to address even stran- 
gers. It was also a tenn which, 
like our Sir, might be used in the 
most respectful salutations. 
8. my servant] Literally, " my 
boy" or " my son ; " but in Luke 
it is explained as servant, dov\ov. 

10. faith] The first use 
of this word in the Gospels, though 
the corresponding adjective is found 
(vi. 30). The noun here, as is sug- 
gested by the adjective there, and 
viii. 26, means trust, confidence, and 
implies a believing, trusting heart. 

11. andshall sit down 
with] shall recline with. At their 



170 



MATTHEW VIII. 



the kingdom of Heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall 12 
be cast out into outer darkness ; there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go 13 
thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. 
And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. 

And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his 14 
wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her 15 
hand, and the fever left her ; and she arose and ministered 

unto them. When the even was come, they brought unto 16 

him many that were possessed with devils ; and he cast out the 
spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick ; that it 17 
might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, 
saying, " Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sick- 
nesses." 

Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave is 
commandment to depart unto the other side. And a certain 19 
scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee 
whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The 20 
foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests ; but the 
Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And another of 21 



meals the Jews, in common with 
other Oriental people, reclined on 
couches. 12. there shall 

"be weeping] There shall be the 
weeping ; " a remarkable article 
used emphatically," " as though 
that were the true ideal of sorrow, 
the normal standard of suffering, 
the archetypal reality of agony." 
" In this life, grief is not yet really 
grief." Bengel. 12. gnash- 

ing of teeth] " from impatience 
and bitterest remorse. Self-love in- 
dulged on earth will then be trans- 
formed into self-hate; nor will the 
sufferer be ever able to depart from 
himself." " Another exposition is, 
the soft will weep, the stern will 
rage." Bengel. This whole im- 
agery is from the marriage feast, — a 
favorite similitude with our Lord, — 
lamps and torches within, the dark- 
ness of night without. 
16. the even] The Jews reckoned 
two evenings, the first evening 
beginning with the declining sun, 
or about three o'clock, P. M. : the 



second evening beginning with the 
setting sun. The hour of evening 
sacrifice and prayer was the ninth 
hour, or about three o'clock. See 
Bobinson's Lexicon. 19. a 

certain scribe] one scribe. Few 
of that class came to Jesus with a 
disposition to receive and follow 
him. He probably saw the mis- 
taken motive, or the infirmity of 
purpose with which this scribe had 
come; and knowing that such fol- 
lowers could only weaken his cause, 
gave him such an answer as would 
reveal him to himself, and lead him 
voluntarily to go away, though he 
may, like the young man (xix. 22), 
have gone away disappointed and 
sorrowful. 20. the Son 

of Man] Dr. Palfrey supposes 
that Jesus used this phrase " as con- 
taining a reference to a form of 
conception and of speech derived 
from (or at least according with) 
a passage in the Book of Daniel 
(vii. 13, 14), where it is said, 'I saw 
in the night visions, and behold, one 



MATTHEW VIII. 



171 



his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and 

22 burv my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me, and 
let the dead bury their dead. 

23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed 

24 him. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, in- 
somuch that the ship was covered with the waves ; but he was 

25 asleep. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, say- 

26 ing, Lord, save us, we perish. And he saith unto them, Why 
are ye fearful, ye of little faith ? Then he arose, and re- 
buked the winds and the sea ; and there was a great calm. 

27 But the men marvelled, saying, AYhat manner of man is this, 
that even the winds and the sea obey him ? 

28 And when he was come on the other side, into the country 
of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, 



like a [or the] son of man came 
with the clouds of heaven,' Sec. In 
these words, the subject in the Avri- 
ter's contemplation was the coming 
of the Messiah to establish the king- 
dom of Heaven. Occurring in a 
passage of such brilliancy, the 
phrase Son of J fan, though by no 
means sufficiently specific in its 
meaning to be restricted into a des- 
ignation of the Messiah, yet was 
likely to take a place among those 
titles' which might properly be ap- 
plied to him." — Relation between 
Judaism and Christianity, pp. 66, 
67. 22. let the dead bury 

their dead] It may be. as Bengel 
suggests, that this is meant to im- 
ply that even the most imperative 
offices of life — such as the burying 
of the dead — should be left to be 
performed by others, since the com- 
mand to follow him was too imme- 
diately urgent and imperative to be 
put aside on any such grounds. 
u But go, thou, and preach the king- 
dom of God; that is, arouse those 
who are dead : being called to this, 
leave burying to others, who, alas ! 
do it naturally enough, as long as 
they themselves are as dead as their 
dead.'' " Ye are called, as the 
living, to diffuse life; leave every- 
thing else as burving-work to the 
dead." Stier. 23. into a 

ship] The size of the ship or boat 



may be inferred from the size of 
the lake. There is great weight in 
a remark of Bengel. which "might 
be carried out more fully than in 
his words: "Jesus had a moving 
school [scholam ambulant em) ; and 
in that school his disciples were 
instructed much more solidly than 
if they had dwelt under the roof of 
a single college, without any anxiety 
or temptation." '26. and. 

rebuked the winds] hushed them, 
or commanded them to be silent. 
The word rebuke, eVirt/xao), is not 
used to express displeasure or 
anger, but as a command to 
cease from what one is already 
doing or saying. " And he charged 
[rebuked, eTnTifXTjcrev'] them not 
to make him known." (xii. 16.) 
28. the Gergesenes] 
In Tischendorf, Gadarenes. In Luke 
it is Gadarenes, but according to 
Tischendorf, Gerasenes. It is diffi- 
cult to decide among these different 
readings. If Urn Keis occupies the 
same spot as the ancient Gadara — 
and of that there seems to be little 
doubt — Gadara could not have been 
the scene of this miracle; for it is, 
according to Thomson, " about three 
hours," i. e. about seven or eight 
miles, " to the south of the extreme 
shore of the lake in that direction." 
But Gersa or Chersa, says Thom- 
son, Vol. II. pp. 35, 36, '*' is within 



172 



MATTHEW VIII. 



coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man 
might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, 29 
What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God ? Art 
thou come hither to torment us before the time ? And there 3(? 
was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. 



a few rods of the shore, and an im- 
mense mountain rises directly above 
it, in which are ancient tombs, out 
of some of which the two men pos- 
sessed of the devils may have issued 
to meet Jesus. The lake is so near 
the base of the mountain that the 
swine, rushing madly down it, could 
not stop, but would be hurried on 
into the water and drowned. The 
place is one which our Lord would 
be likely to visit, having Capernaum 
in full view to the north, and Galilee 
' over against it,' as Luke says it 
was (Luke viii. 26). The name, 
however, pronounced by the Beda- 
win Arabs, is so similar" to Gergesa, 
that to all my inquiries for this 
place they invariably said it was 
at Chersa, and they insisted that 
they were identical, and I agree 
with them in this opinion." 

two possessed with devils] 
Mark ancl Luke speak of only one, 
and represent him as so wild and 
ungovernable, that he dwelt with- 
out clothing among the tombs, driv- 
en by the demon into desert places, 
(Luke viii. 29), continuing day and 
night among the sepulchres ancl on 
the mountains, crying out and cut- 
ting himself with stones (Mark v. 
5), so fierce that chains and fetters 
had been broken by him, and no 
man was able to subdue him. Yet 
when he saw Jesus coming, while 
he was yet afar off (Mark v. 6), he 
ran and prostrated himself before 
him, and shrieked out the words, 
" What hast thou to do with me, 
Jesus, thou Son of the Most High 
God ? Art thou come hither to tor- 
ment us before the time? I adjure 
thee by God, torment me not." 
•Matthew (xx. 30) speaks of two 
blind men, where Mark and Luke 
mention but one. In each case their 
attention may have.been confined to 
the more conspicuous of the two as 
the one on whom our Saviour's 



power was most decisively exer- 
cised. Matthew, from his office as 
a publican or tax-gatherer, would 
be likely to be more precise' in the 
use of numbers, and therefore to 
mention both, even though the par- 
ticulars of the account which the 
other Evangelists have preserved 
actually applied only to one. 

30. a good way off] paKpav, 
far from them. Mark and Luke 
say, e'/cei, " There, on the mountain." 
There is no inconsistency. They 
were there, in the distance, on the 
mountain. This miracle, which has 
more the air of a legend than any 
other in the Gospels except the tak- 
ing of money from the mouth of a 
fish (xvii. 27), is nevertheless re- 
markably lifelike and natural in 
its details, especially as they are 
given by Mark and Luke. With 
the exception of his destruction of 
the fig-tree (xxi. 19), it is the only 
miracle of Jesus that was not wholly 
beneficent in its effects. But the 
very destruction of property, as in a 
similar case (Acts xvi. 16 -19), may 
have been to show how much more 
valuable and sacred is a human soul 
than any amount of gain. It may 
have been intended as a rebuke to 
those who, if Jews, were keeping 
swine in violation of the law. It 
may, in some way unknown to us, 
have been necessary, in order to 
effect the cure and" make *it per- 
manent. Or still more probably, it 
may have been intended, by the 
very considerable magnitude of the 
loss, to attract the attention of the 
community, as the cure of the ma- 
niac alone' could not do, and prepare 
them to receive the Gospel at some 
future day. For such a loss would 
produce a lasting impression on 
their sordid minds; and evidently 
the people in the vicinity were 
moved with awe and dread by this 
more than by any other of his mir- 



MATTHEW VIII. 



173 



31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer 

32 us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, 
Go. And when they were come out, they w T ent into the herd 
of swine. And, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently 
down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. 

33 And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the 
city, and told everything, and what was befallen to the pos- 

34 sessed of the devils. And, behold, the whole city came out to 
meet Jesus ; and when they saw him, they besought him that 
he would depart out of their coasts. 



acles. As to any injustice to the 
owners, it was " God who inflicted 
this loss; and, viewed in this light, 
all inquiry respecting the particular 
cau~e why it was inflicted, and all 
discussion of its reason or justice 
in reference to the owner, are as 
much out of place as they would 
be concerning a fire, or a shipwreck, 
or an earthquake." Norton's "In- 
ternal Evidences of the Genuineness 
of the Gospels," p. 282. That the 
miracle was intended to produce a 
very strong impression is a sugges- 
tion countenanced by the fact'that 



Jesus directed the man (Luke viii. 
39) to go home and declare what 
great things God had done for him. 
The leper, v. 4, luid heen command- 
ed to tell no one. But this was on 
the opposite side of the lake, where 
Jesus had not the same need of 
privacy as on the western side. As 
he was immediately to leave the 
place, and seldom if ever to visit it 
again, he may have been desirous 
of doing what he might to extend 
the knowledge of his mission in that 
region. 



15* 



174 MATTHEW IX. 18-26. 



CHAPTER IX. 

18-26. — Christ's Way of viewing Death. 

The explanation of these miracles will belong more prop- 
erly to Mark v. 22 - 43. A single expression will here be 
noticed (24), " The maiden is not dead, but sleeping." 01s- 
liausen supposes that Jesus intended by these words to say 
that she really was not dead, but only " in a deep trance." 
We think the expression is rather to be regarded as in- 
dicating the view which Jesus took of death. To him 
who looked through the shadowy envelopments of mortal- 
ity, and saw in its higher experience the ongoings of 
the life here begun, death could not appear as it did to 
others ; and, except when he was specially obliged, as 
in John xi. 14, and Matthew xvi. 28, to adapt him- 
self to their understanding, he would naturally apply to 
it forms of speech different from those which were then 
in " use. Here is one of those forms, borrowed possibly 
from the Old Testament (Deut. xxxi. 16 ; 2 Kings xx. 21). 
But the limited expression there, " He slept with his 
fathers" is taken without any such qualification, and the 
act of sleep is held up as the peaceful and fitting emblem 
of death. " Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep." The 
expression fixed itself among his followers. " Many bodies 
of saints who had fallen asleep arose." (Matthew xxvii. 52.) 
" And having said this, he fell asleep." (Acts vii. 60.) 
" Of whom the greater part remain to this day, but some 
have fallen asleep." (1 Cor. xv. 6.) " They who have 
fallen asleep in Christ." (1 Cor. xv. 18.) This softened 
mode of expression, entering the Christian consciousness, 
has changed the whole aspect of the grave. The pall 
of death is but a veil of slumber thrown over the mortal 



MATTHEW IX. 18-26. 175 

form of those who, having lived in Christ, have now 
fallen asleep in him. How in harmony is all this with 
the character of Jesus ! He to whom the issues out of 
this life into a higher realm were as real and visible 
as its ordinary transactions here, could hardly accept as 
truthful accounts of death the terms which were employed 
by men on whom the shadows of the tomb fell with their 
deep and hopeless mystery. Sometimes he is obliged to 
adapt himself to the comprehension of others. But usually 
he speaks of death in other ways. It is a sleep. It is 
rendering back a gift (Matthew x. 39 ; Luke xvii. 33 ; 
John xii. 25), that it may be safely preserved, or the 
laying down of a possession (John x. 17), that it may 
be taken again. It is the coming of the Son of Man. 
(Matthew xxv. 13, 31.) It is the harvest at the end of 
the world (Matthew xiii. 39), where the reapers are the 
angels. " The beggar died (Luke xvi. 22), and was car- 
ried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." " Father, into 
thy hands I commend my spirit." (Luke xxiii. 46.) There 
is nothing constrained in his language. The whole sub- 
ject is transfigured by it ; but it flows so easily from his 
own higher point of view, that we hardly see what power 
there is in his words, unless our attention is particularly 
called to them. He does not formally announce the Con- 
tinuance of our being beyond this world, but rather takes it 
for granted. The doctrine enters into all his conceptions 
of life, makes up a part of his daily consciousness, and 
shows itself spontaneously in his words and acts. " God 
is not the God of the dead, but of the living." So, not 
Moses and Elias alone, but Abraham and Isaac and 
Jacob, the maiden here, and his friend Lazarus at Bethany, 
together with the faithful of all times, were still among 
the living inhabitants of a living world. Death, in his 
view, belonged to the soul as a consequence of sin, and 
not to the body. As life with him means spiritual life, 
so death (a word he seldom uses) means spiritual death. 



176 



MATTHEW IX. 



NOTES. 

And lie entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into 
his own city. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of 2 
the palsy, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said 
unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer ; thy sins 
be forgiven thee. And, behold certain of the scribes said 3 



1. This verse belongs propei'ly to 
the preceding narrative, and should 
be placed at the end of the eighth 
chapter. his own city] 

Capernaum. 2 Jesus see- 

ing their faith] Matthew speaks 
of their faith. Mark (ii. 2 - 4) and 
Luke (v. 18-19) explain how they 
showed their faith by the extraor- 
dinary exertions they made to bring 
the sick man through the roof. The 
crowd was such that they could not 
enter the door. They carried him 
up, therefore, by an outside stair- 
way to the roof, and " unroofing the 
roof [over] where he was," they 
"having broken it up, let him 
down." " The horizontal aperture 
in the flat roof had necessarily a 
secondary roof or porch over it, to 
keep out the rain. The aperture 
may be compared to the cabin 
hatchway of a ship, and the porch 
to the companion. The main roof 
is covered with cement, but, if my 
memory serves me right, the sec- 
ondary" roof is not unfrequently 
sloping, and covered with tiles. It 
is fitted to allow persons in an up- 
right position to enter; but we can 
easily conceive that it might not be 
fitted to admit of a person recum- 
bent on a couch without removing 
the porch." Smith's Diss, on Gos- 
pels, p. 272. thy sins be 
forgiven thee] Jesus, seeing their 
faith, and probably seeing at the 
same time the anxiety and excite- 
ment of the young man, in order to 
remove his agitation and prepare 
the way for his cure, addressed him- 
self first to his mental condition, 
and with great tenderness said to 
him, '-Son, be of good cheer; thy 
sins are forgiven." There was in 



the Jewish mind an intimate con- 
nection between sin and disease, as 
between cause and effect. " Who 
forgiveth all thine iniquities: who 
healeth all thy diseases." (Ps. ciii, 
3.) " Who did sin, this man or his 
parents, that he was born blind? " 
(John ix. 2.) In the case before us, 
it is most likely that the disease, or 
prostration of the nervous system, 
had been brought on by vicious ir- 
regularities and excesses, and that, 
from a consciousness of this, the 
young man in approaching a being 
of such reputed holiness as Jesus, 
may have been so disturbed and 
overcome with a sense of guilt as to 
need the comforting assurance of 
sins forgiven even more than of 
bodily health restored. 
3. certain of the Scribes said] 
The form of expression gave offence 
to the Scribes of the neighborhood 
who were present. " Who," they 
ask among themselves (Luke v. 21), 
" can forgive sins but God alone? " 
Jesus does not assent to the truth 
of what they say, that God, who 
acts by his agents so often in the 
moral administration of the uni- 
verse, may not have bestowed on 
some other being than himself the 
authority to forgive sins, and remit 
the penalty Which they bring; but 
in a Avord, evdv/j.elo-3e, which ap- 
plies both to the thought and the 
emotions occasioned by it, asked, 
why they were cherishing evil 
thoughts and emotions in their 
hearts? " For which," he con- 
tinues, pressing the point home to 
them, " is the easier to say (not to do), 
' Thy sins have been forgiven thee,' 
or 'Arise and walk '? " But, that 
they may know, that (not God alone, 



MATTHEW IX. 



177 



4 within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus, know- 
ing their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil in your 

5 hearts ? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiv- 

6 en thee ? or to say, Arise, and walk V But that ye may know 
that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins (then 
saith he to the sick of the pals}), Arise, take up thy bed, and 

7 go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. 
s But when the multitude saw it, they marvelled, and glorified 

God, which had given such power unto men. 

9 And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named 
Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom; and he saith unto 

10 him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. And it 



but) "the Son of Man on earth 
hath authority to forgive sins," he 
commands .the young man to take 
up his bed and go home. The out- 
ward miracle of healing which they 
had thus seen, and which therefore 
he plainly had the power to do, was 
to be to them an evidence of his au- 
thority to forgive sins; though the 
forgiveness of sins was something 
Miiich they could not see. u By these 
visible tides of God's grace, I will 
give you to know in what direction 
the great under-currents of His love 
are setting, and that both are obedi- 
ent to my word. 1 ' Trench. It may be 
that the' two expression-, " Thy sins 
are forgiven" and " Thy disease is 
healed,'''' were synonymous in the 
mind of Him who saw in the disease 
the effect and punishment of sin; 
and in its removal the withdrawal 
of the penalty, and consequently the 
forgiveness of the sin. This pas- 
sage has been forced into a contro- 
versial position which it will not 
sustain. The reasoning of the 
Scribes, that God alone can for- 
give sins, has been taken on their 
assertion, notwithstanding the point- 
ed rebuke which they received 
from Jesus. Whatever may be 
meant by the authority to forgive 
sins which Christ here claims for 
himself, it was not confined to him- 
self. He ascribes the same author- 
ity to his disciples in the same 
words (in the Greek) that are here 
vised to express the forgiveness of 
sins, with the addition of a still 



stronger clause, " Whosesoever sins 
ye forgive, they are forgiven to 
them, and whosesoever ye retain 
they are retained."' (John xx. 23.) 
Whether, in either case, the act 
implies anything more than the au- 
thority to declare that forgiveness 
is granted is not shown by anything 
connected with either of the pas- 
sages before us. 9. at the 
receipt of custom] The place 
for collecting taxes. And 
he arose and followed him] 
The readiness with which the call 
of Jesus is obeyed by Matthew in- 
timates, if it does not positively im- 
ply, a previous acquaintance, as it 
did in the calling of Peter and An- 
drew, John and James (iv. 18. 22). 
In the conciseness of the Gospel 
narratives the facts actually re- 
corded are not always sufficient to 
explain the causes and motives 
which led to them, or the relation 
in which they stand to one another. 
Often something must be under- 
stood beyond what is told. The 
reader will also observe here the 
modesty with which the writer 
speaks of himself, especially in re- 
gard to the feast (v. 10). " A great 
feast" (Luke v. 29) which Matthew 
gave to Jesus in his own house. 
His associates, many tax-gatherers, 
and sinners as the Pharisees con- 
sidered them, were present. The 
Pharisees probably were not there 
personally to partake of the feast. 
They would not pollute themselves 
by eating in so promiscuous a com- 



178 



MATTHEW IX. 



came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many 
publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his dis- 
ciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his n 
disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sin- 
ners ? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They u 
that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. 
But go ye and learn what that meaneth, " I will have mercy, 13 
and not sacrifice." For I am not come to call the righteous, 
but sinners, to repentance. 



pany. Their censorious remarks 
must have been made after the feast. 
"Why," they ask (v 11), "does 
your master eat with publicans and 
sinners?" "Because," Jesus in 
substance replies (12, 13), "these 
are the very men to whom I have 
been sent. As the physician is 
needed, not by the healthy, but the 
sick, so am I come to save, not the 
righteous, but the sinful." No lan- 
guage can be plainer than this. He 
does not say that these persons are 
sinful above others, or that the 
Pharisees are truly righteous. He 
answers the Pharisees on their own 
supposition, taking the subject as it 
lies in their minds. It is as if he 
had said: " Suppose things are as 
you think ; suppose that these per- 
sons are the sinners, and you the 
righteous ones ; that is the very rea- 
son why I, as the physician of souls, 
should go to them rather than to 
you." It is one of the cases in 
which the language of Jesus applies 
in many ways. 1. It announces 
the general truth that those who are 
already righteous do not need a 
Saviour. This, as a general propo- 
sition, is equally true, whether there 
are any such persons actually liv- 
ing or not. 2. As directed to the 
Pharisees, it takes them on their 
own ground, and gives them from 
their own point of view a reason, 
the validity of which they must ad- 
mit, why he should seek out the 
sinful and abandoned. 3. But be- 
yond this, with a keener edge and 
a more pungent personal applica- 
tion, he turns the same words 
against them, and lays bare the 
emptiness of their pretensions to 



righteousness, by pressing upon 
them the language of a prophet 
(Hosea vi 6) whose authority they 
could not reject, and who, by the 
words, " I will have mercy, and not 
sacrifice," unmasks them to them- 
selves, and rebukes their unforgiv- 
ing and uncharitable judgments. 
At the same time that Hosea is 
made to expose and condemn the 
Pharisees, he also shows the char- 
acter and office of Jesus, who mer- 
cifully came, not to call the righte- 
ous, but sinners. 13. I will 
have mercy, and not sacrifice] 
The Hebrew form of comparison, 
instead of " I will have mercy rather 
than sacrifice," — the spirit indi- 
cated by sacrifice, which was only a 
form, rather than the form without 
the spirit. the righteous] 
This word, SUaios, it has been said, 
is used to express an outside, for- 
mal, or self-righteousness. We can 
find no such use of it. It is an epi- 
thet for what is right in the sight 
of God. " Prophets and righteous 
men desired to see my day." (Matt. 
xiii. 17. ) " Then shall the right- 
eous shine forth as the sun." (xiii. 
43.) "Then shall the righteous 
answer him." (xxv. 37.) " The just 
[righteous] shall live by faith." 
(Pom. i. 17) "For scarcely for a 
righteous man will one die : though 
for a good man perhaps one even 
dares to die. But God commended 
his love towards us, in that while we 
were yet sinners Christ died for us," 
(Rom. v. 7, 8.) Here righteous and 
good, as synonymous terms on the 
one hand, are contrasted with sin- 
ners on the other to re- 
pentance] is omitted by Tischen- 



MATTHEW IX. 



179 



u Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do 

15 we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not ? And 
Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride-chamber 
mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them ? But the days 
will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and 

ig then shall they fast. 2Co man putteth a piece of new cloth 
unto an old garment ; for that which is put in to fill it up tak- 

17 eth from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do 
men put new wine into old bottles; else the bottles break, and 



dorf, and the sense is greatly im- 
proved by the omission. 
14. Then] Not necessarily at that 
very time (though it may have been 
so), but about that time, the dis- 
ciples of John, who had not then 
risen far enough above the old dis- 
pensation to comprehend the new, 
in its true character, came to ask 
why he did not fast as they and the 
Pharisees did ? 15. chil- 

dren of the bride -chamber] 
Not ordinary guests, but the par- 
ticular friends of the bridegroom, 
■who go to fetch the bride from her 
father's house to the bride-chamber, 
or who go with the bridegroom to 
the house where the festival is pre- 
pared and the bride is to be found. 
John the Baptist had already pub- 
licly spoken of Jesus (John ill- 29) 
as the "bridegroom." This gives 

fjeculiar force to the illustration 
lere used by Jesus in his reply to 
John's disciples. " How," he asks, 
'• shall the very sons of the bride- 
chamber, during the days of the 
marriage festivities, while the bride- 
groom is Avith them, fast?" It 
would be a forced, unnatural, and 
unseemly act. But the days will 
come when the bridegroom shall be 
taken from them, and then, in their 
loneliness and sorrow, they will 
have no heart for feasting, but will 
fast. The meaning is, that fasting 
is not to be a forced, external ob- 
servance at stated times, whatever 
the condition of a man's soul, but 
that when he feels his deso 1 . ition 
and smfulness, then he will mourn, 
and, in the true sense of the word, 
fast. " Fasting should be the genu- 
ine offspring of inward and spiritual 



sorrow, of the sense of the absence 
of the bridegroom in the soul, — not 
the forced and stated fasts of the 
" old covenant now passed away." 
" It is remarkable how uniformly a 
strict attention to artificial and 
prescribed fasts accompanies a 
hankering after the hybrid cere- 
monial system of Rome." Alford. 
16. Then, following out the same 
thought Avith illustrations, — the 
garments and the wine, — borrowed 
still from the wedding feast, he asks 
John's disciples, how it is possible 
to patch up an old, worn-out, cere- 
monial system with something new 
and stronger, but still of the same 
sort, of the same outside, super- 
ficial, ceremonial character? By 
patching this piece of strong, un- 
fulled, badly-matched cloth on the 
old and rotten garment you do not 
remedy the defect, but, on account 
of the strain that is put upon it, you 
enlarge the rent, and by the con- 
trast make the poverty of the old 
garment appear even worse than 
it did before. 17. new 

wine into old bottles] And 
not only can you not preserve the old 
ceremonial observances by patch- 
ing new rites and ceremonies upon 
them, but you cannot preserve them 
by infusing new life into them. The 
old bottles, made of skin, smeared 
perhaps on the inside with pitch, 
growing stiff and weak and brittle 
as they grow old, are not fit to hold 
the new wine in its state of vehe- 
ment fermentation. No more is the 
new religion, with its restless and 
boundless activities, coming as a 
new life into the world, to be com- 
pressed within the old and now de- 



180 



MATTHEW IX. 



the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish ; but they put new 
wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. 

While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came 19 
a certain ruler and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is 
even now dead ; bitt come and lay thy hand upon her, and she 
shall live. And Jesus arose and followed him, and so did his 19 

disciples. And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with 20 

an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched 
the hem of his garment. Eor she said within herself, If I may 21 
but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him 22 
about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good 
comfort ; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman 

was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus came 23 

into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels, and the people 
making a noise, he said unto them, Give place; for the maid 24 



bilitatecl forms ; for so it would burst 
them asunder. The forms would 
perish, and with them the religion 
which had sought shelter, expres- 
sion, and the means of activity and 
influence in them. The new faith 
must assume the new and elastic 
forms adapted to the living energies 
with which it is endowed; and then 
both will be preserved. 18. 

My daughter is even now dead] 
Not, as some commentators say, is 
just dying ; but she is just dead ; 
cipTL ereXevTrjaev, by this time she 
is dead. 23. the min- 
strels and the people making 
a noise] " During my stay in 
Jerusalem," savs Professor Hackett, 
"111. of Scrip.," p. 113, "I fre- 
quently heard a singular cry issu- 
ing from the houses in the neigh- 
borhood of the place where I lodged, 
or from those on the streets through 
which I passed I ascer- 
tained, at length, that this peculiar 
cry was, no doubt, in most instances, 
the signal of the death of some per- 
son in the house from which it was 
heard. It is customary, when a 
member of the family is about to 
die, for the friends to assemble 
around him, and watch the ebbing 
away of life, so as to remark the 
precise moment when he breathes 
his last; upon which they set up 



instantly a united outcry, attended 
with weeping, and often with beat- 
ing upon the breast, and tearing out 
the hair of the head. How exactly, 
at the moment of the Saviour's ar- 
rival, did the house of Jairus cor- 
respond with the condition of one, 
at the present time, in which a 
death has just taken place ! It re- 
sounded with the same boisterous 
expression of grief for which the 
natives of the East are still noted. 
The lamentation must have com- 
menced, also, at the instant of the 
child's decease; for Avhen Jesus ar- 
rived he found the mourners already 
present and singing the death-like 
dirge. (See Mark v. 22, &c.) The 
account discloses another mark of 
aceiu-acy which may be worth point- 
ing out. Matthew speaks of ' min- 
strels ' as taking part in the tumult. 
The use of instruments of music 
at such times is not universal, but 
depends on the circumstances of the 
family. It involves some expense, 
which cannot always be afforded. 
Mr. Lane mentions that it is chiefly 
at the funerals of the rich, among 
the Egyptians, that musicians are 
employed to contribute their part 
to the mournful celebration. The 
' minstrels,' therefore, appear very 
properly in this particular history. 
Jairus, the father of the damsel 



MATTHEW IX. 



181 



is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. 

25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her 

26 by the hand ; and the maid arose. And the fame hereof 
went abroad into all that land. 

27 And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed 
him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on 

28 us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men 
came to him, and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that 1 am 

29 able to do this ? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then 
touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it 

30 unto you. And their eyes were opened. And Jesus straitly 

31 charged them, saying, See that no man know it. But they, 
when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that 
country. 

32 As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man, 

33 possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the 
dumb spake. And the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was 

34 never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, he casteth out 
devils through the prince of the devils. 

35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching 



■whom Christ restored to life, since 
he was a ruler of the synagogue, 
must have been a person of some 
rank among his countrymen." 
24. And they laughed him to 
scorn] A most vivid contrast, — 
these hired mourners scornfully 
laughing at him who had interrupt- 
ed their noisy demonstrations of 
grief ; and Jesus, with serene be- 
nignity, going in. taken the little 
maiden by the hand, and calling to 
her to arise from the sleep of death. 
27. Thou son of David] 
It is a little remarkable that this ex- 
pression should be used in each of 
the three cases of healing the blind 
which are mentioned by Matthew 
(xii. 23; xx. 30). have 

mercy on us] A confession of 
misery and a cry for mercy, which 
has become a part of the solemn 
and affecting litany for all suffer- 
ing and penitent souls. 'EXerjaov, 
eleeison, has been transplanted by 
music and poetry into the devotions 
of all languages/ ( See Longfellow's 
16 



Blind Bartimeus. 30. Jesus 

charged them on pain of his dis- 
pleasure, saying, " See that no man 
know it." " Why the prohibition 
here, when he had already com- 
manded the Gadarene demoniac 
(Mark v. 19) to go home to his 
friends and tell them how great 
things the Lord had done for them? 
That was on the east side, near the 
farther end of the lake, in a remote 
place which Jesus never probably 
visited except at that time. The 
report there of what he had done 
could therefore cause him no incon- 
venience. Besides the different 
characters of the men may have 
been such that the Gadarene would 
advance his cause, and the others 
bring discredit upon it, by being its 
advocates. The conduct of the two 
men, who when they had received 
their sight did the opposite of what 
he had strictly commanded them, 
shows that they were not men to 
be depended upon 34. 

prince of the devils] (See xii. 






182 



MATTHEW IX. 



in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, 
and healing every sickness and every disease among the peo- 
ple. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with 36 
compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered 
abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his 37 
disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are 
few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will 38 
send forth laborers into his harvest. % 



24). - 35. and healing 

every sickness] Every kind of 
sickness and disease. 
36. fainted] Tischendoi-f substi- 
tutes for this Avord another which is 
still more significant, ianvkfievoi, 
wormed, harassed, torn in pieces, 
distracted, for want of true and com- 
petent guides. How touching a 
picture .do these verses (35-38) give 
of the extent of our Saviour's labors 
and the intensity of his sympathy 
for the multitudes whom he saw 
worried and scattered abroad like 



sheep without a shepherd! The 
harvest truly is plenteous, but the 
laborers are few, &c. No one takes 
these words in a literal sense; and 
no one can fail to recognize some- 
thing of their exquisite beauty in 
our English version, which admira- 
bly preserves, not only the meaning, 
but almost exactly the musical 
rhythm of the Greek. With such 
a command from Him, how can we 
help praying the Lord of the harvest 
that he will send forth laborers into 
his harvest? 



MATTHEW X. 5-15. 183 



CHAPTER X. 

5-22. — Directions to the Apostles. 

Jesus here gives his disciples specific directions for their 
conduct during the present journey ; though even these 
directions are marked by a wisdom which belongs to all 
times. 

5-15. He directs them to confine their ministry to the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel. This was not owing 
to a Jewish prejudice on the part of Jesus. The disciples 
were now entirely inexperienced. They were not yet 
educated and prepared to go forth to evangelize the world. 
They must not yet go out beyond the reach of their Mas- 
ter. The object now, as Chrysostom suggests, was not 
so much to make converts, though that also was a part 
of his plan, as to train and exercise and educate the 
disciples within the narrow limits of Palestine, as in a 
school, that, when the time should come, they might be 
prepared for the larger work that was before them. Be- 
sides, it was important to have a nucleus somewhere. And 
where could it be so well as among the people, who, during 
so many centuries under Moses and the prophets, and more 
recently from the preaching of John the Baptist, had been 
in training for the dispensation which was now at hand ? 
The disciples were to go forth not to proclaim Jesus as 
the Messiah. The time for that had not yet come. They 
were to complete the work which John had begun, of 
preparing the popular mind for his advent, by proclaim- 
ing as his heralds or preachers that the kingdom of the 
heavens was at hand. And they were to give weight 
to their message by the miracles which they wrought in 
the name of their Master. 



184 MATTHEW X. 16-20. 

They are to receive nothing for the cures they may 
effect. As the gift, 8, is one freely bestowed on them, 
so are they to exercise it without reward. But as they go 
forth thus endowed with power from on high, so, 9, 10, 
they are not to burden themselves with any provisions 
for their journey. No money, no wallet (scrip), no extra 
garments or shoes or staves are to be purchased so as 
to encumber them in their movements. Nor were they, 
on entering a village, to go about from house to house. 
Where, 10, they found one worthy and willing to receive 
them, with him they were to stay till their ministry in 
that village was ended. They, 12, 13, were not to be 
unmindful of the courtesies due to those who should re- 
ceive them. If the house were worthy, their peaceful 
salutation would rest upon it; and if the house were not 
worthy, no harm would be clone ; the blessing which 
they had bestowed upon it would return in peace to their 
own bosom. They were not to waste their time and 
gifts on those, 14, who would not receive them ; but by 
the symbolic act of shaking the very dust from their feet 
were to show that they regarded them as heathen and 
aliens. But a heavy retribution would fall on the city 
which should reject them. Not even Sodom and Gomorrah, 
which had refused to listen to Lot and Abraham, had been 
given over to so terrible a destruction in their day of retri- 
bution, as at length, in its day of judgment and condem- 
nation, would fall on that city. 

16-20. In the 16th verse, it has been thought, Jesus 
rises from specific directions for the present journey to 
considerations which apply to them and those who shall 
come after them in future ministrations. " Behold / send 
you," — the / emphatic, as if to inspire and strengthen 
them by the thought who it is that sends them forth 
as lambs in the midst of wolves. He dwells upon the 
dangers that lie before them, and points out distinctly 
what they are, partly to put them on their guard and 



MATTHEW X. 16 - 20. 185 

make them feel how circumspect and unoffending they 
must be, and partly, that, when the trials should come, 
they, remembering how he had foretold them, should not 
be cast down and disheartened by them. " Beware of 
men.*' he says, "for they will deliver you up, or betray 
you to councils, or Jewish courts of justice in provincial 
towns, and they will scourge you in their synagogues, and ye 
shall be brought before governors (the Roman pro-consuls, 
like Pilate) and kings (tetrarchs or viceroys, ruling as 
kings under the Roman government, like Philip and Herod) 
for a testimony or witness (paprvpiov) to (not against) them 
and the nations or Gentiles." as they were in their time, 
and as Christian martyrs in all subsequent times have 
been. 

But here, lest from these warnings they should carry 
their prudence and precautions too far, he, v. 19, reminds 
them of the opposite dangers, and tells them to make 
no anxious preparation as to how or what they should 
say when arraigned. It is as if he had said. " Be wise 
and unoffending. Go forth in thoughtful simplicity and 
faith, as my disciples, as the agents and messengers of 
God. And then, when perils come, better than any labored 
forethought or preparation of yours, it shall be given you 
in that very hour what ye shall speak." u A new spirit," 
savs Mr. Norton. " was to be breathed into them. God 
would elevate their souls, and would inform their minds 

with religious truth With this confidence, this 

knowledge of the truth, and this moral elevation, what 
they should speak would always be given them ; the spirit 
of their Father would speak in them." '-It is to be ob- 
served," says Afford, "that, in the great work of God 
in the world, human individuality sinks down and vanishes, 
and God alone, his Christ, his Spirit, is the great worker." 
Does not the promise apply to all times, and does it not 
rebuke the unbelief and hesitating fidelity of those who, 
in seeking to advance the highest interests of man, trust 
16* 



186 MATTHEW X. 21, 22. 

only to their own wisdom and strength ? And does not 
this vanishing away of the human individuality in Christ, 
by his entire surrender of himself to the Divine will, show 
in what sense he and his Father were one? 

21, 22. Having thus confirmed their faith, Jesus places 
before them a yet darker picture of impending dangers. 
Members of the same household shall be divided in deadly 
hostility against one another. And not only in your own 
homes, he goes on to say, but everywhere, ye shall be 
hated of all men on my account, / But he who endureth 
to the end shall be saved>- He who endureth as the 
early martyrs Stephen and James did, to the end of life, 
shall be saved. In this sense it applies to the faithful 
of all times and places. But as in the previous verses 
especial notice is given of the domestic feuds which should 
precede the destruction of Jerusalem, dividing the inmates 
of the same household in mortal enmity against one an- 
other, and turning the common hatred of the Jews with 
peculiar fierceness against the Christians, "the end" here 
in its primary application probably denotes the end of 
the Jewish polity, which may be said to have terminated 
with the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the Roman 
general, A. D. 70. For at that time the political existence 
of the Jews was blotted out, and their national religious 
observances, " the sacrifice and the oblation " ( Daniel ix. 
27) ceased. In this sense the deliverance here announced, 
v. 22, refers to the freedom which the Christians should 
then enjoy from the persecutions to which they had been 
so cruelly subjected by the Jews, and of which some in- 
stances are given in the Book of Acts. 

23. — The Coming of the Son of Man. 

" Till the Son of Man come." This expression probably 
means the same here as "the end" in the previous verse. 
" Till his religion is established and fully confirmed," says 



MATTHEW X. 23. 187 

Mr. Norton. The words are used by Jesus and the Evan- 
gelists with entirely different meanings at different times. 
Matthew (xi. 19, "The Son of Man came eating and 
drinking,") speaks of him in the ministry in which he was 
then engaged. So (xviii. 11), "For the Son of Man is 
come to save that which was lost." On the other hand, 
in xvi. 27, xxiv. 30, xxv. 31, When the Son of Man 
shall come " in the glory of his Father with his angels," 
" in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," 
" in his glory, and all the holy angels with him," the 
expression evidently reaches on to some future, and, in 
one case (xvi. 27, 28), not far distant event. For it is 
there distinctly and emphatically asserted by Jesus, that 
there were those then standing by him who should not 
taste of death till they had seen him coming in his king- 
dom. What is meant by this coming which was then 
so near at hand ? Primarily it meant the establishment 
of Christ's religion consequent upon the removal of the 
Jewish polity at the* destruction of Jerusalem. But may 
it not also be, that he used language which, while fore- 
shadowing the establishment of his religion on earth, should 
also, under the most solemn figures of speech, set forth 
the more thorough and decisive establishment of its princi- 
ples in their retributive application to every soul that goes 
out from its mortality to meet him in his glory ? " Through- 
out this discourse," says Afford, " and the great prophecy 
in chap, xxiv., we find the first Apostolic period used 
as a type of the whole ages of the Church, — and the 
vengeance on Jerusalem, — which historically put an end 
to the old dispensation, and was in its place with refer- 
ence to that order of things, the coming of the Son of 
Man, as a type of the final coming of the Lord. These 
two subjects accompany and interpenetrate one another 
in a manner wholly inexplicable to those who are un- 
accustomed to the wide import of Scripture prophecy, 
which speaks very generally, not so much of events them- 



188 MATTHEW X. 24-38. 

selves, points of time, — as of processions of events, all rang- 
ing under one great description. Thus in the present case 
there is certainly direct reference to the destruction of 
Jerusalem; the "end" directly spoken of is that event, 
and the " shall be saved " the preservation provided by 
the warning afterwards given in chap. xxiv. 15-18. And 
the next verse directly refers to the journeys of the Apos- 
tles over the actual cities of Israel, territorial, or where 
Jews were located. But as certainly do all these ex- 
pressions look onwards to the great final coming of the 
Lord, the " end " of all prophecy ; as certainly the " shall 
be saved " here bears its full Scripture meaning, of ever- 
lasting salvation ; and the endurance to the end is the 
finished course of the Christian, and the precept in the 
next verse is to apply to the conduct of Christians of all 
ages with reference to persecution, and the announce- 
ment that hardly will the Gospel have been fully preached 
to all nations (or, to all the Jewish nation, i. e. effectually) 
when the Son of Man shall come. It is most important 
to keep in mind the great prophetic parallels, which run 
through our Lord's discourses, and are sometimes sepa- 
rately, sometimes simultaneously, presented to us by him." 

24-38. — Further Directions to the Apostles. 

If the most contemptuous of names, v. 25, is given to 
the lord of the house, how much more will it be given 
to those who, as his inferiors, belong to his house. The 
scholar must be satisfied if he is treated as well as his 
teacher ; the servant, if he is treated as well as his master ; 
But fear them not, v. 26. The time of darkness cannot 
last. The real condition of things, and with it the nature 
of your mission and of the truths you teach, will be brought 
to light. " Why," says Chrysostom in his paraphrase, " do 
ye grieve ? Because they call you impostors and deceivers ? 
Wait a little, and all men will declare you saviours and 



MATTHEW X. 24 -3S. 189 

benefactor;! of the world." Proclaim, then, in the light 
and from the house-tops what I have told you in our 
obscurity and in secret. Fear not them who can kill only 
the body, and have no power over the soul, but rather 
fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehen- 
na. We can see no reason to believe, with some modern 
critics, as Olshausen and Stier. that Satan or Beelzebub 
is the one whom the disciples are directed to fear. It is 
not Satan, but God alone, who has the power which is 
here held up as the cause of dread. Yet not alone by 
images like this of his power to destroy body and soul 
alike is their reverence for him to be strengthened. Calling 
their attention to the little birds around them, of which 
two were sold for an assarion, or half a cent, Jesus tells 
them that not even one of these should fall upon the ground 
unnoticed by their Father. [The sparrows, according to 
a recent traveller, Hackett. p. 86, are still numerous in 
Palestine, and are sometimes sold for food.] Why then 
shall they who are of so much more value than many spar- 
rows, and the hairs of whose head are all numbered. — 
why shall they distrust the Providential care of God, 
or fear what man can do to them ? In v. 32, by a con- 
nection so natural that it is hardly noticed, Jesus rises 
from actions here to their consequences in higher worlds ; 
and, in order to confirm his disciples in their fidelity to 
him. he emphatically declares that they who confess or 
deny him before men, will be confessed or denied by him 
before his Father in the heavens. 

Still he wishes them (3-4 -39) to understand fully what 
their trials and their sacrifices here must be. " I come, not 
to send peace, but a sword." Here, as in other passages 
of Scripture, the consequences of an action are mentioned 
as if they were the intended results. In Exodus iv. 21 
God says of Pharaoh, " I will harden his heart, that he 
shall not let the people go," i. e. the effect of all these 
fearful exhibitions of the Divine power will be only to 



190 MATTHEW X. 24-38. 

harden his heart and confirm him in his wicked purposes. 
In 1 Kings xxii. 19-23, God is represented as putting 
a lying spirit into the mouth of the king's prophets ; i. e. 
as they were all wicked and deceitful men, he allowed 
them to be deceived and misled by the lying spirit which 
they sought. So in the passage before us, one of the 
consequences of Christ's coming is put as if it were a 
part at least of his design in coming into the world to 
effect it. The connection is this. Notwithstanding that 
God suffers not a sparrow to fall unnoticed, and every 
one of you who confess me on earth shall be recog- 
nized and accepted by me in heaven, still, you are not 
to expect that I shall quiet at once the warring elements 
of the world. On the contrary, I shall introduce a new 
cause of hostility, and thus send, not peace, but a sword, 
setting a man at variance against his father, and the 
daughter against her mother. This is the inevitable re- 
sult. The bitterest hostility of their friends will be roused 
against the disciples because of their allegiance to him. 
And here, 37, is to be a new test of their fidelity. In 
the contests which are to come up they must decide which 
they will choose, him or their friends ; and he that lovefh 
father or mother, son or daughter, more than him, and 
who, besides that, is not willing even to take up his cross 
and follow him, giving up friends and life for his sake, 
is not worthy of him. That is, they must be ready to 
give up and to endure everything in his service. 

This was the primary idea, and probably the only one 
that impressed the disciples at the time. But the cross 
was not a Jewish instrument of punishment, and there- 
fore would not naturally suggest to the Jewish mind the 
imagery by which it would describe the extreme degra- 
dation and sufferings of a cruel and infamous death. It 
is probable that Jesus employed this then unusual form 
of expression, not only to convey the idea of the per- 
sonal sacrifices which his followers must make for his 



MATTHEW X. 39. 191 

sake, but also to familiarize their minds beforehand with 
the terrible images of torture and death which he was to 
meet. Here, as in other places (Matthew xvi. 24, John 
iii. 14, viii. 28, xii. 32), though they did not fully under- 
stand him at the time, the cross threw its darkening shadow 
before them, and he was thus preparing their minds, un- 
consciously to themselves, that when he had been crucified, 
and had risen from the dead, these words, which at first 
had awakened only vague and unintelligible forebodings, 
should stand out in their prophetic character, as pointing 
all to the same result. 

39. — Life or Soul. 

He who findeth, i. e. who seeketh to find, his life, shall 
lose it; and he who loseth, i. e. who is willing to lose it, 
shall find it. Here is another instance, in which Jesus, 
whose soul was full of thoughts which the earthly language 
that he spoke had no terms to express, used the same word 
to express very different meanings. At least the Evange- 
lists so represent him. The word i/™^, which is here 
rendered life, like 7n>ev/*a, and the Latin words anima and 
spiritus, as well as the corresponding Hebrew words B&3 
and nn, means primarily breath or air. It is used in the 
New Testament : 1. For the animal life, common to beasts 
and men (Matthew ii. 20, vi. 25, xx, 28). 2. It stands 
for the rational as well as sensitive, animating principle, — 
a something, it has been thought, between the animal and 
spiritual principle of life. " The first man Adam was made 
a living soul," psyche, in contradistinction to the second 
Adam, who was a life-making spirit, pneuma. 3. It is 
used as nearly synonymous with our word soul. " Thou 
wilt not leave my soul in Hades." (Acts ii. 27.) "I saw 
under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the 
word of God." (Rev. vi. 9 ; see also Rev. xx. 4 ; 1 Peter 
iv. 19 ; Matt. x. 29.) It naturally bears all these meanings ; 



192 MATTHEW X. 39. 

for strictly speaking, the word ^vxrj stands for the vital, sen- 
tient principle in which our consciousness resides, and with 
it our sense of personal identity. It is that which con- 
stitutes a man's self, and might better be translated by the 
word self than by any other single word in our language. 
It is the sentient, conscious principle which pervades our 
whole being, animal, intellectual, and spiritual, and which 
may be considered in its relation to either one, or to all, of 
these departments of our nature. It may, therefore, refer 
to our physical, our intellectual, or our spiritual life. In 
v. 29 of this chapter Jesus uses it as we do the word soul, 
as something distinct from our physical life. In v. 39, he 
passes from one meaning to the other ; and the better trans- 
lation would be : He who findeth, or (John xii. 25) loveth 
himself, shall be lost, and he who loseth himself shall be 
saved. That is : He who is bound up in himself shall 
perish ; but he who, in his devotion to me, is willingly ex- 
posing himself to death, as if (John xii. 25) he hated himself, 
shall live. The expression goes deeper than is intimated in 
our common version. There may be a selfish regard to our 
souls and spiritual interests, as well as to our earthly life and 
bodily interests. The Saviour's words are directed against 
every form of selfishness and self-seeking, whether in rela- 
tion to body or soul, to this world or the world to come. 
Whosoever seeketh first himself, though it be his own soul, 
shall perish ; and he who is willing to cast away everything, 
even his care for his own soul, in his devotion to me, shall 
be saved. He who is saving his soul in this selfish way 
shall lose it ; and he who is losing his soul, in this unselfish 
devotedness to me, shall save it. At the same time the con- 
nection with the cross of v. 38 implies that there is a 
reference here to the loss of life, in our sense of the word 
life ; and so there is a passing from the lower to the higher 
meaning of the word, from the mortal to the immortal life, 
and the verse may be thus paraphrased, " Whosoever seeks 
first of all his life (an earthly one), shall lose it (as an im- 



MATTHEW X. 40-42. 193 

mortal inheritance) ; and he who (in his supreme devotion 
to higher things) is ready to cast his life (his earthly life) 
away, shall find it (as an immortal inheritance). 

This practice of so using language that it shall reach 
from its primary and narrow meaning, spiritually up into 
higher realms of life, or prophetically on to more distant 
scenes and events, is one of the greatest difficulties in the 
way of the commentator, who would give a precise and 
definite meaning, and only one, to every expression that 
he meets. The charm, as well as much of the power that 
lies in the words of Jesus, consists in the fact that they 
open before us worlds of thought and being into which we 
may enter, but which are too full to be emptied of all their 
treasures, and too vast to be bounded by any exact defini- 
tions of ours. 



40-42. — Different Degrees of Reward. 

And while men may thus save or lose their souls, there 
are different degrees of recompense, and not the smallest 
act shall be permitted to go unrewarded. To receive 
the Apostles is, of course, not merely to give them a 
hospitable reception, kindly supplying them with food and 
shelter ; it is to receive them with their instructions into 
the heart and life. In so doing men receive Christ, who 
is represented by them, and whose life-giving doctrines 
they teach ; nay, they receive God himself. The reward 
would depend on the kind of reception that was given. 
He who is far enough advanced in the Jewish religion 
to recognize and welcome a prophet or righteous man 
as such, because he is a prophet or a righteous man, shall 
receive the reward of a prophet or righteous man. In 
receiving him as a prophet, he is made partaker of the 
prophet's thought and life, and of course will share the 
prophet's reward. But he who has enough of the spirit 
of Christ to receive a little child as his disciple or repre- 
17 



194 MATTHEW X. 

sentative, shall in no wise lose a disciple's reward, for 
in so doing he is receiving the spirit and the life of 
Jesus into himself. Perhaps there were children present. 
The term " little ones " is applied by Jesus to children 
(xviii. 2-6). Or it may be, as Mr. Norton and others 
suppose, that by " little ones " Jesus means his own in- 
experienced disciples ; as if he had said, " whosoever shall 
give a cup of cold water to one of these, my children," &c. 
In either case the fundamental meaning is the same. There 
is a climax from the prophet, who, though a special messen- 
ger of God, was sometimes meagre in spiritual attainments, 
through the just man in his legal righteousness 1 to the 
disciple in whom, as coming from Christ, is the fulness 
of a diviner life and through it of a larger reward. " Many 
a benevolent, pious Jew," says Olshausen, "might receive 
the Apostles as prophets or righteous men, because, from 
his point of view, he could not recognize anything higher 
in them ; but he who was able to recognize in the messen- 
gers of Christ that specifically new thing which they brought, 
and who, from love to it, would receive them, received the 
full blessing from Him." The prominent idea in these 
sentences relates to the different kinds and degrees of re- 
ward which men shall receive according to their different 
attainments in the Jewish or the Christian life. 



NOTES. 

Axd when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he 
gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and 
to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease. 



1-4. We have four different cata- ferent accounts may be easily com- 

loo;nes of the Apostles, viz. : Matt, pared, we subjoin' the following 

x.9-4; Mark iii. 16-19; Luke vi. table: — 
14 -1(3; Acts i. 13. That the dif- 



MATTHEW X. 



195 



2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these : the first. 
Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James 

3 the son of Zebedee, and John his brother ; Philip and Bar- 
tholomew ; Thomas, and Matthew the publican ; James the 
son of Alpheus, and Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus ; 

4 Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed 



MATTHEW. 

Simon 
Andrew 

James 
John 


MARK. 

Peter 
James 
John 
Andrew 


LUKE. 

Simon 
Andrew 
James 
John 


ACTS. 
Peter 
James 
John 
Andrew 


Philip 

Bartholomew 

Thomas 

Matthew 


Philip 

Bartholomew 
Matthew 
Thomas 


Philip 

Bartholomew 
Matthew 
Thomas 


Philip 

Thomas 

Bartholomew 

Matthew 


James of Alpheus 
Lebbeus 

Simon Cananaios 
Judas Iscariot 


James of Alpheus 
Thaddeus 
Simon Cananaios 
Judas Iscariot 


James of Alpheus 
Simon Zelotes 
Judas of James 
Judas Iscariot 


James of Alpheus 
Simon Zelotes 
Judas of James 



In all these catalogues the names 
may naturally be divided into three 
classes. In the first two classes 
the names in the different accounts 
are the same; and in the third class 
there is no difference of statement 
in regard to the first name and 
the last. Simon Cananaios is only 
the Hebrew name corresponding to 
Simon Zelotes, in Greek. Probably 
before being called by Jesus, he was 
a member of the sect called Zealots, 
who, according to Josephus (B.J. 4. 
3. 9; ib. 4. 5.1-4; ib. 4. C.3; and 7. 
8.1), were guilty of the greatest 
excesses and crimes a short time 
before the destruction of Jerusalem. 
The only name about which there 
is any difficulty is that of Lebbeus, 
or Thaddeus, or Judas [the son or 
brother] of James. " Thaddeus," 
says Lightfoot, " is a warping of 
the name ' Judas,' that this apostle 
might be the better distinguished 
from Iscariot." Like Elijah and 
Elias, they were only different forms 
of the same name. In John xiv. 22 
we find a "Judas," not " Iscariot," 
among the Apostles. Lebbeus and 
Thaddeus have been supposed to 
mean the same thing; but, accord- 
ing to De Wette and Alford, this 
view is not sustained by the ety- 
mology of the Avords. The proba- 
bility is that Lebbeus was a sur- 



name, borrowed possibly, as Light- 
foot conjectures, from his place of 
residence, and given to him, as the 
name Iscariot was given to the other 
Judas, from his place of residence, 
to distinguish them from one an- 
other. " Whose surname was Thad- 
deus," the reading of our 'common 
version is marked as doubtful by 
Griesbach. and omitted by Tischen- 
dorf. If we knew nothing about 
Simon's name, beyond what we find 
here, we should think there was a 
contradiction in the accounts, Mark, 
and the author of the Acts saying 
Peter, where Matthew and Luke say 
Simon. Simon Peter, and Andrew 
his brother, sons of Jonas, and John 
the son of Zebedee, with James his 
brother, were (Luke v. 10) partners 
in the fishing-trade, and, together 
with Philip (John i. 44) belonged to 
Bethsaida. This James is the one put 
to death by Herod (Acts xii. 2 ). Bar- 
tliolomew is, with reason, supposed 
to be the same as Nathaniel, who 
is mentioned by John twice (i. 46; 
xxi. 2 ) among the Apostles. He was 
from Cana of Galilee. Without any 
good reason, it has been conjectured 
that Philip and Bartholomew were 
brothers ; and that Thomas and 
Matthew were twin-brothers. The 
humility of Matthew has been in- 
ferred from his applying to himself 



196 



MATTHEW X. 



him. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, 5 

saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city 
of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost 6 
sheep of the house of Israel. And, as ye go, preach, saying, i 
The kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the 8 
lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils ; freely ye have received, 
freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, in 8 
your purses ; nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, 10 
neither shoes, nor yet staves. For the workman is worthy of 
his meat. And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, in- n 
quire who in it is worthy ; and there abide till ye go thence. And u 



here the reproachful epithet "pub- 
lican." James, the son of Alphaeus 
(Alphaeus and Cleopas or Clopas, 
being only different ways of turn- 
ing the same Hebrew "word into 
Greek), pi-esided over the church 
at Jerusalem, and " from the aus- 
tere sanctity of his character was 
commonly called, both by Jews 
and Christians, "James the Just." 
Mention is made (Matt. xiii. 55, and 
Gal. i. 19) of James, a brother or 
kinsman of Jesus. ( See note to xiii. 
55.) If Judas of James is Judas 
the brother of James, this suppo- 
sition agrees with xiii. 55, where we 
read of James and Judas as among 
the brethren of Jesus ; and with 
Jude 1, where we read of "Judas, 
the servant of Jesus Christ, and the 
brother of James." 3. Mat- 

thew, the publican] a collector of 
taxes. Matthew's humility is seen 
in his applying to himself in his 
catalogue of the apostles the odious 
name, which no other Evangelist 
applies to him in this connection. 
" On no point," says Milman, Hist. 
Christ. B. I. c. IV., " Avere all orders 
among the Jews so unanimous as in 
their contempt and detestation of 
the publicans. Strictly speaking, 
the persons named in the Evange- 
lists were not publicans. These 
were men of property, not below the 
equestrian order, who farmed the 
public revenues. Those in question 
[those mentioned in the Gospels] 
were the agents of these contractors, 
men, often freed slaves, or of low 
birth and station, and throughout 



the Roman world proverbial for 
their extortions ; and in Judaea still 
more hateful, as among the mani- 
fest signs of subjugation to a foreign 
dominion. The Jew Avho exercised 
the function of a publican was, as 
it were, a traitor to the national in- 
dependence." 5. Gentiles] 
The nations, — those who are not 
Jews. Samaritans] 
Samaria lay between Galilee and 
Judaea, and was inhabited by the 
Samaritans, who were descended 
from the ten tribes, and from people 
of heathen nations who at different 
times had been sent as colonists 
with them. Their religion was 
drawn partly from the law of Moses, 
and partly * from pagan supersti- 
tions. 9. Provide neither 
gold] Provide is the emphatic 
word. Take no pains to provide or 
purchase anything for your jour- 
ney ; but go as you are, trusting in 
God. Purses were girdles worn 
about the waist, in which money 
was carried. 10. scrip] 
a wallet usually of leather, in which 
shepherds and travellers carried pro- 
visions, neither shoes] 
" but be shod with sandals " (Mark 
vi. 9). Lightfoot says that there 
was a marked distinction between 
shoes and sandals, the former being 
more like an article of luxury than 
the latter. nor yet 
staves] Do not take pains to pro- 
vide them. Mark says Jesus com- 
manded them to take nothing for 



their journev, except a staff. 
11. and there abide] Wi 



ith him 



MATTHEW X. 



197 



13 when ye come Into an house, salute it. And if the house be 
worthy, let your peace come upon it ; but if it be not wor- 

14 thv, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not 
receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that 

15 house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say 
unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and 
Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city. 

16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be 
it ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But 

beware of men. For they will deliver you up to the councils, 

is and they will scourge you in their synagogues ; and ye shall 

be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testi- 

19 mony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver 
you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak ; for it 

20 shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For 
it is not ye that speak, but the spirit of your Father which 

21 speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother 
to de'ath, and the father the child ; and the children shall rise 
up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death ; 

22 and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But he 



who is worthy, and when ye come 
into the house (not an house, as in 
our translation), i. e. with him into 
his house, salute it. Be courteous. 
Observe the customary forms of 
salutation. " A servant of the Lord 
is truly courteous, for he has learned 
to be so in the high court of his 
king." 13. if the house 

be worthy] Here house, passing 
from its meaning in the previous 
verse, is used as comprehending the 
family who lived in it. 
let your peace rest upon it] 
pray for its good, and if it be un- 
worthy the blessing that you ask 
for, it will return into your own 
bosom. Thus, if those for whom 
we pray do not allow our prayers 
for their good to be answered as it 
regards them, still we shall not pray 
in vain. The peace we ask for 
them will come to us. 
14. shake off the dust of your 
feet ] The dust of heathen land 
defiled. By shaking off the dust of 
a city, the disciples were to show 
17* 



that they esteemed it heathenish, 
profane, and impure. 16. 

harmless as doves] Not harm- 
less, but pure. The clove, an em- 
blem of the Holy Spirit, stands for 
Christian gentleness and purity of 
soul. Let your wisdom, of which 
you will have abundant need, never 
degenerate into a selfish prudence 
or cunning ; but let it be united 
with the purity of soul which in- 
cludes within itself singleness of 
purpose and the love " which seek- 
eth not her own," and " which 
thinketh no evil." |9. take 

no thought] give yourself no 
anxiety about what you shall say. 
(See vl. 25.) * 22. for my 

name's sake] By the name of 
Jesus is meant the spirit, the quali- 
ties, and attributes belonging to 
him. To come together in his 
name, is to come together in his 
spirit; to ask anything in his name, 
is to ask it as in his stead or in his 
spirit; and to be hated for his 
name's sake, is to be hated on ac- 



198 MATTHEW X. 

that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they per- 23 
secute you in this city, flee ye into another. For verily I say 
unto you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till 
the Son of Man be come. The disciple is not above his mas- 24 
ter, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disci- 25 
pie that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If 
they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much 
more shall they call them of his household ? Fear them not 26 
therefore. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be 
revealed ; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you 27 
in darkness, that speak ye in light ; and what ye hear in the 
ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops. And fear not" them 28 
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul ; but rath- 
er fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and one of them 29 
shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the 30 
very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not there- 31 
fore ; ye are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever 32 
therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also 
before my Father, which is in heaven. But whosoever shall 33 
deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father, 
which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace 34 

count of the qualities which be- which was spoken in the ear." 

longed to him. " It is to be observ- Lightfoot. the house- 

ed," says Swedenborg, " that the tops] the flat roofs of the houses, 

ancients, by the name of a thing, where trumpets were sounded to at- 

understood nothing but its essence ; tract attention, and proclamations 

and by seeing and calling by name, were made. 32. him will 

they meant the knowledge of its I confess also] The emphatic I. 

nature and quality." 23. What personal dignity and authority 

flee ye into another] not only, must lie under it, to sustain it in 

as Mr. Norton suggests, that they such a connection! Who is this 

may escape persecution, but that that promises to recognize and ac- 

they may carry on their work more knowledge us before the throne of 

effectually. 24, 25. The God, in the presence of his Father 

different relations of Christ to the who is in the heavens ? Could any 

Apostles, viz. the teacher to his prophet or righteous man, — Gideon 

pupils, the master [lord] to his ser- or Barak, Abraham or Samuel, — 

vants, and the lord or head of the promise thus to confess before God 

house to his dependents ; literally, those who had confessed him before 

his domestics. . 27. What men? Only the "one mediator 

ye hear in the ear] " Allusion between God and man, the man 

is here made to the manner of the Christ Jesus," (1 Tim. ii. 5) can 

schools, where the doctor whispered stand in this relation between us 

out of the chair into the ear of the and God. 34. not to 

interpreter, and he with a loud voice send peace, hut a sword] Not 

lepeated to the whole school that my wish, but the inevitable result. 



MATTHEW X. 



199 



35 on earth ; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am 
come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daugh- 
ter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her 

36 mother-in-law : and a man's foes shall be they of his own 

37 household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is 
not worthy of me ; and he that loveth son or daughter more 

3S than me is not worthy of me ; and he that taketh not his cross, 

so and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth 

his life shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life for my sake 

40 shall find it. lie that receiveth you receiveth me ; and he that 



Think not that you can escape the 
trial. The throne of peace is to be 
established in the midst of discord 
and war. Love enters with its 
divine message, its rebuke against 
sin, its offers of mercy, but men 
turn against it, and strife and wars 
ensue. " What now follows," says 
Stier, " down to ver. 39, form ' a 
circle of ideas which,' as Winzen- 
mann Fays, 'never came from the 
mind of mortal, before Jesus.' It is 
the subliming of all the prophetic 
expectations concerning the king- 
dom of God into the transcendent 
and future and heavenly; in per- 
fect correspondence with the true 
sense of all prophecy, which never 
could, however, till now be so clear- 
ly apprehended and expressed. This 
Is a testimony which is effectually 
thrown in the way of all who would 
build up the kingdom of peace on 

this side But, although 

everything in his kingdom looks 
forward to the beyond and the fu- 
ture, to the finding of life, in respect 
to all who shall be found worthy of 
him, this heavenly kingdom does 
not give up the earth. Upon it, and 
in hot conflict, must the heirs of 
everlasting peace secure and pre- 
pare for their inheritance." This is 
an effectual answer to those timid 
sentimentalists and prudent con- 
servatives, who think more of peace 
and present sectirity than of right- 
eousness and trufh,\vhich, however 
mildly urged, awaken the anger and 
deadly opposition of those whose 
interests they would compromise, 
and whose lives they rebuke. 



38. that taketh not his cross] 

This is the first mention that is 
made of the cross, that great sym- 
bol of Christian self-denial and self- 
sacrifice and death, and through 
death of victory. The word must 
have fallen with a strange chill on 
the hearts of the disciples. All that 
they could then understand by it 
savored of humiliation and pain 
and infamy. It was not till after 
the resurrection of Christ that the 
hallowed and triumphant associ- 
ations, now connected with it, could 
have power over them, or any mean- 
ing for them. 39. He that 
findeth his life] " We have once 
more ^XV m that deeper sense in 
which we found it at v. 28, point- 
ing from the life of the body to a 
yet higher life. This striking decla- 
ration contains, if both sayings are 
taken literally, a perfect contradic- 
tion ; consequently the jindiny and 
hslny must obviously, in the first 
place, be understood in different 
senses. In the second place, "^^xh 
also must be used in two opposite 
senses. The ^X 1 ? which is to be 
killed, which must be crucified, is 
the sinful self-life of the old man, 
which is truly death; and this dead 
life must be "mortified and lost by 
an internal, continual crucifixion 
and self-denial (of which the taking 
up of the external cross is only an 
external expression), in order that 
we may find the living life, — our 
sanctified, glorified, and eternal life. 

He who gives up, in the 

fellowship of the cross of Christ, 



200 MATTHEW X. 

receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth 41 
a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's 
reward ; and he that receiveth a righteous man, in the name 
of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man's reward. 
And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones 42 
a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say 
unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. 



all that which must die and pass Mount, the peroration goes up and 
away, has by such loss obtained the finds its solemn climax in the great- 
gain of eternal blessedness." Stier. est and most terrible consequences 
42. verily I say unto of unfaithfulness and sin ; here it 
you] Thi3 impressive form of comes down and finds its affecting 
affirmation comes in at the close anti-climax in the certain reward 
of each separate train of thought of the smallest act of kindness per- 
in this discourse, viz. at verses 15, fonned in the spirit of a disciple to 
23. and 42. In the Sermon on the any one of Christ's little ones. 



MATTHEW XI. 201 



CHAPTER XI. 

John the Baptist axd his Message. 

X Jesus continued in Galilee. John the Baptist had been 
for some time imprisoned by Herod. This was Herod An- 
tipas, the son of Herod the Great, who is mentioned in the 
second chapter of Matthew. His father had once by will 

. named him as his successor in Judaea ; but he afterwards 
changed his mind, and leaving his son Archelaus, king of 
Judaea, appointed Herod to the inferior dignity of tetrarch or 
viceroy of Galilee to the north, and of Perea which lies on 
the east side of the Jordan. Herod Antipas was a cunning, 
unscrupulous man. His usual place of residence was at 
Tiberias, a name which, in honor of the Roman Emperor 
Tiberius, he had given to a town on the southwestern bor- 
der of the Lake of Galilee, probably somewhere from eight 
to eleven miles south from Capernaum. In the other ex- 
tremity of his kingdom, only a few miles eastwardly from the 
place where the Jordan empties into the Dead Sea, he had 
a castle called Machasrus, which had been enlarged and 
fortified by his father, and in which, as appears, Herod 
Antipas sometimes resided. In this castle, according to 
Josephus (Ant. XVIII. 5. 2), John was imprisoned. He 
had never quite comprehended the nature of the kingdom 
of Heaven which he had announced as near at hand, nor 
could he fully understand either the character or the office 
of Jesus, to whom he pointed his disciples (John i. 29) as 
" the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world," 
and of whom he had afterwards said (John iii. 30), " he must 
increase, but I must decrease." In this respect he was like 
other prophets chosen for a specific purpose, who sometimes 



202 MATTHEW XI. 

(Dan. xii. 8) had but an imperfect understanding of the 
symbolical images which they saw, and the words they used. 
Even to the seers themselves " the words were closed up and 
sealed " for the time; 

We sometimes attribute a sort of omniscience to men 
raised up by God, and inspired only for a particular pur- 
pose. And when a man has once been set apart in this way, 
we are too apt to suppose that he must be entirely unlike 
other men, and free from human infirmities and passions. 
But even Moses, who was favored with a nearer and more 
frequent access to God than any other of the prophets, had 
his seasons of distrust (Ex. iii. iv.), of unrestrained passion 
(Ex. xxxii. 19), and unbelief (Num. xx. 12). Elijah, the 
greatest of the prophets who came after him, showed him- 
self to be of like passions with other men, and (1 Kings xix. 
4- 10) had his time of almost angry impatience, despond- 
ency, and doubt. In this they were only subject as men to 
the laws of our physical and mental constitution. The more 
they were raised above themselves in their moments of re- 
ligious exaltation, the more severe would the reaction be 
likely to be, and the greater the depression that followed. 

John the Baptist, who in his public ministry had been fol- 
lowed by thousands to whom he had been devoting himself 
with all the zeal and energy of his earnest and powerful 
nature, proclaiming the near approach of the long-expected 
kingdom of Heaven, and having the head of that kingdom 
pointed out to him by a voice from heaven, was now cut off 
from his public labors, and shut up in a prison far away from 
the scene of Christ's ministry. He had been urging the 
necessity of immediate repentance as a preparation for the 
immediate coming of the kingdom of God. He waits in 
awe and expectation, but the silence is not broken by the 
sound of its coming. What can be the meaning of this 
delay ? The energies of his active and powerful nature are 
thrown in upon themselves. He is moved by strong and 
violent emotions. He broods over the unpromising condi- 



MATTHEW XI. 203 

tion of things, and is disturbed by the tardy development of 
the Divine plans. He becomes impatient and distrustful. 
" Can it be," he may have asked himself amid the many 
thoughts that rushed upon his mind, " that there is any mis- 
take in this matter ? " The slightest doubt is too painful to 
be borne, when the whole thing can so easily be set at rest 
by one word from Jesus himself. The impatient doubt could 
hardly have gone further than this. His faith in Jesus 
could not have been seriously disturbed, or he would not 
have sent his followers to ask him the question which he put. 
He would have sent them rather to see for themselves, and 
to inquire of others. But tired of the delay, brooding over 
the possibilities of mistake, with apprehensions and forebod- 
ings which bear some proportion to the grandeur of his 
previous anticipations, in his forced inactivity and confine- 
ment, he sends two of his disciples across the whole length 
of the province, to ask Jesus whether he is really the one 
who was to come, or whether they were to look for another ? 
In these few words, John intimated his impatience of delay, 
his secret misgivings, and his desire that Jesus would adopt 
some more decided and effective course. The whole pro- 
ceeding on the part of John is perfectly natural, and in no 
way inconsistent with the assurance which had been mirac- 
ulously given to him in regard to the office and person of 
the Messiah. Such alternations of feeling, and such convul- 
sive movements of the mind, leading them for the moment 
to question the reality of their most cherished convictions, 
and even of what their eyes have seen, belong to men of his 
temperament, even where, as in the case of Martin Luther, 
there is the strongest faith and the most courageous and de- 
termined energy of will. 

How admirable the course which Jesus took to satisfy 
John, and how in its calmness does it show his infinite supe- 
riority, and the easy, majestic ascendency which he had over 
men ! Merely to declare in words that he was the Messiah 
would not have satisfied the prisoner in his present state of 



204 MATTHEW XI. 

mind. " Why then/' he might have asked, " if he is the 
Messiah, does he so long delay ? " Nor had the time yet 
come for Jesus publicly to announce himself as the Messiah. 
He knew that whenever that announcement was made, his 
earthly ministry must be brought speedily to an end, and, 
therefore, in the presence of John's disciples, in that same 
hour (Luke vii. 21) he performed many and various kinds 
of miracles ; and, having thus impressed them with a convic- 
tion of more than earthly authority and power, he directed 
them to go back and tell their master what they had seen 
and heard, — how the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are 
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor 
have the good tidings proclaimed to them, — in this message 
using just enough of the old prophetic language (Isaiah 
xxxv. 5, 6, xlii. 7, lxi. 1) to give, in the mind of John, ad- 
ditional significance and solemnity to his message. Then he 
added, in words of mild rebuke and encouragement, coupling 
a benediction with his reproof, "And blessed is he who 
shall not be offended in me," — who does not allow himself 
to be disturbed, or to lose his faith in me, because, in my 
divinely appointed work, I am not pursuing precisely the 
course which he had expected. No reply could have been 
better fitted to the state of John's mind, which was impatient 
because it was so earnest, — disappointed and doubting be- 
cause it had believed and expected so much. 

Then, 7 — 14, turning to the multitude, Jesus made this 
an occasion of admonition and instruction to them. At the 
same time he would renew their respect for John, which 
might have been lessened by the doubts into which he would 
appear, from his questions, to have been betrayed. There is 
nothing which the multitudes bear with less patience than 
any seeming vacillation, or want of steadfastness in their 
great men. " What went ye out into the wilderness to see ? " 
Did ye go out expecting to find one who would bend to your 
changing wishes, as a reed to the wind ; or one who would 
gratify your voluptuous tastes, like courtiers who are in 



MATTHEW XI. 205 

kings' houses, with their soft, effeminate garments ? Or did 
you go into that solitary place to find a prophet ? Yea, I 
say unto you, and more than a prophet. He is one who has 
been foretold by prophets as the herald who should be raised 
up to announce the new dispensation, and to prepare the way 
for its coming. Among those bora of women no greater 
man than he has ever been raised up.,.> And yet, he adds, 
with solemn emphasis, calling their attention to the higher 
kingdom which is now to be established, the least in the 
kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. That higher kingdom 
is of such transcendent dignity and power, that its lowest 
subject shall be greater than he who stood foremost in the 
old dispensation. Possibly Jesus may have had in his mind 
the Roman empire, whose citizens were greater, and bore 
with them the ensigns of a mightier power, than kings of 
other nations. But what does he mean in saying that the 
least of his own disciples is greater than John the Baptist ? 
He means that the humblest of those who really belong to 
his kingdom are made the partakers of a diviner life, and 
better understand the nature of his kingdom, and the ele- 
ments of a true spiritual greatness, than even the greatest 
of those who had gone before. " They are greater," says 
Lightfoot, "in respect of clear and distinct knowledge in 
judging of the nature and quality of the kingdom of Heaven." 
The knowledge of a divine life unfolded in the Sermon on 
the Mount, and set before the humblest of his followers in 
the words, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, is be- 
yond all that the prophets and righteous men of old' were 
able to attain to. They indeed, 13, — i. e. the law and the 
prophets until John, — only predicted the coming of the 
heavenly kingdom, — only pointed on to it in the remote 
and distant future. John, in this respect greater and more 
favored than they, proclaimed it as already at hand, and 
from his time (the idea is drawn from a besieged city) men 
are forcing their way into it, and taking it as by violence. 
In these words Jesus alludes to the crowds who, first attracted 
18 



206 MATTHEW XI. 15-19. 

by John's preaching, were now, from their misapprehension 
of his kingdom, pressing round him, and seeking as it were 
to force their way in. "And this," he adds, 14, "if ye will 
only receive it," i. e. not take the language literally, but 
understand it as it should be understood, is Elijah, whose 
coming (see note xvii. 10) before the Messiah was generally 
looked for among the Jews. 

15-19. The comparison here in our common version 
is rendered obscure. The children who say to their com- 
panions, " We have piped to you, and ye have not danced ; 
mourned to you, and ye have not lamented," are sometimes 
thought to represent John and Jesus, while the others, 
who were so unreasonable as to respond to them neither 
in their merriment nor their mourning, represent those 
who condemned both the Saviour and his forerunner. The 
objection to this is, that it is precisely the opposite of what 
Jesus says : It — this generation — " is like children sitting 
in the market-places, and saying," &c, &c. On the other 
hand, it is difficult to see how the unbelieving Jews were 
represented by the children, who complained that their 
companions would sympathize with them neither in their 
make-believe mirth nor their lamentation. Luke (vii. 32) 
says, "They were saying to one another," &c, &c. And 
Tischendorf adopts a similar expression as the correct read- 
ing in Matthew. The true interpretation is thus made 
easy. To what shall I compare this generation? It is 
like a crowd of children in some public place, seeking 
amusement, and able to agree upon nothing, but chiding 
one another as hard to please, and by their mutual re- 
proaches only adding to the general confusion and dis- 
content. Such a capricious, dissatisfied, complaining race 
is this generation, who complain of John as a half-crazed 
demoniac because of his austere and ascetic life ; and yet 
when Jesus came eating and drinking as others did, re- 
ject and stigmatize him as self-indulgent and intemperate, 
the companion of the low and the abandoned. But, he 



MATTHEW XI. 20-24. 207 

continues, 19, whatever these may say or do, wisdom is 
justified, i. e. is recognized and honored, by those who 
in spirit are really her children. Whatever the outward 
form under which she may come, however she may be 
despised and rejected among men, they who are her chil- 
dren, whose hearts are open to her influence, will hear 
her voice, and hold her in honor. To them she needs 
no word of commendation or defence, whether she come 
under the severe guise of John, the preacher in the wilder- 
ness, or in the more divinely attractive life and teachings 
of the Son of man. 



20 - 24. — Great Privileges unimproved visited by a 
heavier Condemnation. 

These words were probably spoken after a pause. The 
word "then" with which they are introduced rather in- 
timates that some time, minutes or days, had intervened. 
The idea is the same as in Matthew x. 15. In propor- 
tion to our privileges are our responsibilities; and the 
greater the opportunities that we cast aside or neglect, 
the heavier the condemnation that must fall upon us "in 
the day of judgment," i. e. as Mr. Norton translates it, 
" when sentence is passed." As to the cities Tyre and 
Sidon, they had, many centuries before our Saviour, been 
among the most opulent and enterprising cities in the 
world. At the present time, and for centuries past, they 
have been places of no importance, and remain in a com- 
paratively desolate and ruinous condition. But in the time 
of Jesus they were populous and flourishing cities, and con- 
tinued so for generations afterwards. Why then are they 
mentioned, in connection with Sodom, as examples of a 
Divine retribution ? They were noted, even among heathen 
nations, for the profligacy, licentiousness, and degrading 
superstitions to which they were given over. The force 
of the comparison lies in this. It is as if Jesus had said, 



208 MATTHEW XI. 25-30. 

"You know how utterly degraded and abandoned these 
cities are, to what lewd, debasing superstitions they have 
bound themselves, and how hopeless their moral and re- 
ligious condition is. And yet, notwithstanding all this, 
I declare unto you, that if the mighty works which 
have been done here had been done long ago in Tyre 
and Sidon, they would have repented in dust and 
ashes, and even Sodom, if it had witnessed such works 
of divine goodness and power, would have remained to 
this day. And thou Capernaum, which art exalted to 
heaven, which art above all others in privileges, shalt be 
brought down to hell, — to Hades, i. e. to the abode of 
the dead, to utter destruction. It was the strongest lan- 
guage that could be framed to express the privileges 
which Christ was offering, and the heavy condemnation 
and sorrow which must fall on those who reject them. 
As a matter of fact, the words of Jesus have been fulfilled 
in regard to the places themselves. Tyre and Sidon, 
though in a ruinous and degraded condition at the end 
of the last century and the beginning of this, are now 
more prosperous, and have never been so utterly blotted 
out from the knowledge and memory of man as Chorazin 
and Bethsaida, of which no trace can be found by the 
most careful researches. Nor have modern travellers been 
able to fix with any degree of certainty on the site of 
Capernaum, which was favored above all other cities during 
our Saviour's ministry as the place of his residence. 

25 - 30. — Christ's Thankfulness, and his Call to the 
Heavy Laden. 

According to Luke (x. 17-21), who in this case marks 
the time more particularly than Matthew, these words were 
spoken after the return of the seventy disciples. They had 
come back with joy on account of the miracles which they 
had performed. In this their first success Jesus sees the 



MATTHEW XI. 25-30. 209 

token of the ultimate triumph over the powers of dark- 
ness. " And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as light- 
ning fall from heaven." Yet he warns them not to rejoice 
in their miraculous powers, but rather that their names 
are written in heaven. Then, at the thought of the way 
in which these simple, unlearned men, these babes in 
knowledge, have received and proclaimed his truth, he 
breaks out into the sublime exclamation of thanksgiving 
which is here recorded by Matthew. Though his instruc- 
tions were hidden from men whose wisdom is only the 
blinding prudence of this world, and though he may have 
been pained to find his offers rejected by them, and to 
foresee the sorrows which they who would not hear him 
must bring upon themselves, he nevertheless bows in thank- 
fulness : " Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy 
sight." He turns with a perfect trust to the infinite and 
holy Father, and rests in his will with gratitude and joy. 
He stops in no lower sphere. He asks not and he ex- 
plains not how the hiding of these things from the wise 
and prudent, to their overthrow and destruction, though 
they were revealed unto babes, should be a reason for 
rejoicing ; but he goes to the good pleasure of his Father 
in heaven as the centre of all that he could wish. The 
benignant will of God was so entirely his will, — that central 
Fountain of life and joy so filled to overflowing his own 
soul, that whatever might come was to him a source of 
thankfulness, because it came from Him. " Even so, Father, 
for so it seemed good in thy sight." And, as an additional 
cause for gratitude, he goes on to say, " All things are 
delivered or taught unto me by the Father. "Everything 
has been given to me by the Father." Though man can- 
not understand me, the Father does ; and so, though men 
do not understand the Father, yet I and they to whom 
I shall reveal Him, do understand him. Then, in the 
fulness of the Divine wisdom, power, and love which had 
been given to him, he uttered, 28-30, the words of in- 
18* 



210 MATTHEW XI. 

vitation, and the promise of relief and rest, which, from 
that day to this, have fallen with such infinite tenderness 
on laboring and burdened souls. No commentary can add 
to or bring out their meaning. They pour out their sweet- 
ness, with ever-increasing freshness and power, into the souls 
of those who accept his offer, and who, giving themselves 
up entirely to him, take his yoke upon them, and learn 
of him in meekness and lowliness of heart. 



NOTES. 

And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of com- 
manding his twelve disciples, he departed thence, to teach and 
to preach in their cities. 

Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, 2 
he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that 3 
should come, or do we look for another ? Jesus answered and 4 
said unto them, Go and show John again those things which 
ye do hear and see ; the blind receive their sight, and the lame 5 
walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are 
raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them ; 
and blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. 6 



2. the works of Christ] of are not recorded. The Gospels can 

the Christ or Messiah. This is the hardly be regarded as containing 

only instance, except in the first more than samples of the different 

verse of the first chapter, where sorts of works which he performed. 

Matthew in his own narrative ap- We must not, therefore, be surprised 

plies this name to Jesus. It proba- that single acts, such as raising the 

bly is used here as particularly ap- widow's son at Nain (Luke vii. 11 - 

propriate, in consequence of John's 15), and the raising of Lazarus (John 

state of mind in regard to Jesus as xi. 1-46), should be mentioned only 

the Messiah. In that case it har- by one writer. 6. offended] 

monizes with the view we have The root from which this expression 

taken of John, and the object of his comes in Greek means a trap or 

message. 5. the dead snare, and thence a stumbling-block. 

are raised up] Matthew has spe- Whatever might trip one up or 

cified only one case (ix. 24, 25) of cause him to stumble. Blessed is 

raising a person from the dead. The he who is not offended in me, i. e. 

expression here implies more, and who finds nothing in my course 

should remind us of the multitude which may serve as a stumbling- 

of his extraordinary acts which block or impediment in the way of 



MATTHEW XI. 



211 



7 And, as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes 
concerning John : What went ye out into the wilderness to 

s see ? a reed shaken with the wind ? But what went ye out for 
to see ? a man clothed in soft raiment ? Behold, they that wear 

9 soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what went ye out for to 
see ? a prophet '? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. 

10 For this is he of whom it is written, "Behold, I send my mes- 
senger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before 

n thee." Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of 
women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist ; 
notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of Heaven is 

12 greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until 
now, the kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent 



his faith in me. " When persecu- 
tion and tribulation arise because 
of the word, immediately he is 
offended (Matt. xiii. 21), "i. e. he 
funis an impediment or stumbling- 
block in the way of his fidelity to 
Christ. So xiii. 57. xv. 12, xvii. 27. 
Lest we should offend them, i. e. 
put a stumbling-block in their way. 
10. Behold, I send 
my messenger before thy face] 
This is taken, with a slight altera- 
tion, from Malaehi iii. 1: " Behold I 
will send my messenger, and he shall 
prepare the' way before me; and the 
Lord [not Jehovah], whom ye seek, 
shall suddenly come to his temple." 
John, therefore, is represented as 
the forerunner of the Lord, or the 
Messiah. The word here translated 
" the Lord," says Dr. Noyes, " when 
used without the article, is every- 
where applied to human beings in 
the Old Testament. And though 
with the article, which it has here, 
it denotes the Sapi-eme Being as 
the Lord of all the earth, when no 
other use of the article can be as- 
signed except to denote the Supreme 
Being; yet in this verse the article 
may be used merely to denote that 
particular lord who was an object 
of expectation and desire." 

11. Among them that are 
"born of women] Possibly this 
expression is used, as Oldshausen 
asserts, by way of contrast to those 
who are bom of God in the higher 



and Christian sense. 12. 

the kingdom of Heaven suf- 
fereth violence] This is one of 

the obscure and difficult passages, on 
which very different constructions 
have been put. We have given one 
in our general remarks above, p. 205; 
but are by no means sure that the 
following is not a more satisfactory 
explanation. The verb may be con- 
sidered in the passive voice, and 
translated is forced, or suffereth 
violence ; or it may be taken as in 
the middle voice, and translated, 
forces itself, or makes its oicn way 
by force. Mr. Norton renders it, 
" until now the kingdom of Heaven 
is forcing its way." Stier adopts the 
same interpretation. " The king- 
dom of Heaven," he says, " pro- 
claims itself loudly and openly, 
breaking in with violence ; the poor 
are compelled (Luke xiv. 23) to 
enter in ; those who oppose it are 
constrained to take offence. In 
short, all things proceed urgently 
with it; it goes with ' mighty move- 
ment and impulse ' (as Draseke 
preaches), it works effectually upon 
all spirits in both directions, and on 
all sides. The first [clause of the 
sentence] speaks of that mighty 
excitement which the breaking in 
of the kingdom of Heaven in itself 
occasions ; the second points out 
inferentially the result. Its con- 
straining power does violence to 
all ; but it excites at the same time, 



212 



MATTHEW XI. 



take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied, 13 
until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which 14 
was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 15 
But whereunto shall I liken this generation ? It is like unto 16 
children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fel- 
lows, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not 17 
danced ; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lament- 
ed. For John came neither eating nor drinking ; and they 18 
say, He hath a devil. The Son of Man came eating and 19 



in the case of many, obstinate op- 
position. He Avho will not submit 
to It must be offended and resist, 
and he who yields to it must press 
and struggle through this offence. 
Thus the kingdom of Heaven does 
and suffers violence, both in its two- 
fold influence: it exerts a mighty 
power itself, and a mighty power 
must be put forth towards it, wheth- 
er it be of faith or of unbelief." 

15. He that hath ears] 
A solemn call of attention to what 
has been said. 16. It is 

like unto children] According 
to Teschendorf 's reading, this should 
be translated, " It is like children 
sitting in the markets, who, calling 
to one another, say," &c. 
17. We have piped] Hired mu- 
sicians were employed at weddings 
and at funerals (ix. 23). The chil- 
dren ai-e represented as imitating 
in their sports these hired minstrels ; 
and in their vehement recrimina- 
tions crying out against one another, 
they only add to the general con- 
fusion and inconsistency. This gen- 
eration reject at one time the Bap- 
tist, because of his ascetic habits ; 
and at another time the Son of 
Man, because of his free and liberal 
course of life, and add to the gen- 
eral confusion and to their own in- 
consistency by their divisions among 
themselves, accusing one another; 
one party exclaiming, " You refuse 
to have this," and the other retort- 
ing, " You refuse to have that," like 
noisy, unreasonable children, who 
are crying out against each other; 
one party exclaiming, " We have 
given you merry music, and you 
have not danced," and the other 



party replying in anger, " "We have 
given you funeral music, and you 
have not lamented ; " so that in the 
disturbance both strains alike — the 
merry and the mournful — are re- 
jected. The picture is given to the 
life; and the comparison is a most 
interesting one, showing as it does 
how our Saviour, with the weight 
of his great mission upon him, 
entered into the amusements of 
boys, as he did with a deeper sym- 
pathy into the disposition and tem- 
per of babes. 18. He hath 
a devil] a demon. The Jews be- 
lieved insanity to be caused by evil 
spirits, or demons. To say that a 
man has a demon might with them 
mean either that he was a wicked 
man, given over to an evil spirit, or 
that he was a maniac, or not im- 
probably, as in this case, a union of 
the two. " Thou hast a devil, and 
art crazy " (John x. 20) ; — the first 
expi'ession representing the cause, 
and the second the effect. 
19. is justified] This word oc- 
curs in the Gospels six times, and 
always with the same meaning, viz. 
in the active voice, to cause to 
be recognized as just or approved. 
" By thy words thou shalt be justi- 
fied," i. e. approved, or recognized 
as just. (xii. 37.) " The people 

justified God," i. e. approved 

of what he had done, or declared 
him to be just. ( Luke vii. 29. ) " He, 
wishing to justify himself," i. e. 
to cause himself to be recognized 
as just. (Luke x. 29.) "Ye are 
they who justify yourselves before 
men," i. e. would cause men to 
recognize you as just. (Luke xvi. 
15.) " This man Avent down to 



MATTHEW XI. 



213 



drinking, and they say, Behold, a man gluttonous and a wine- 
bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But Wisdom is jus- 

20 tified of her children. Then began he to upbraid the cities 

wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they 

21 repented not : Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! woe unto thee, Beth- 
saida ! for if the mighty works which were done in you had 
been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long 



his house justified," i. e. approved 
by God, recognized by him as 
right. (Luke xviii. 14.)' 
21. Tyre and Sidon] It has been 
usual with travellers to point out the 
literal fulfilment of ancient proph- 
ecies (Isa. xxiii. 1-15; Ezek. xxvi. 
xxviii.) in regard to these places. 
We quote a few passages on this 
subject from Stanley's " Sinai and 
Palestine " : " There is one point 
of view in which this whole coast 
is specially remarkable. ' A mourn- 
ful and solitary silence now prevails 
along the shore which once re- 
sounded with the w r orld's debate.' 
This sentence, with which Gibbon 
solemnly closes his chapter on the 
Crusades, well sums up the general 
impression still left by the six days' 
ride from Beyroot to^Ascalon; and 
it is no matter of surprise that in 
this impression travellers have felt 
a response to the strains in which 
Isaiah and Ezekiel foretold the des- 
olation of Tyre and Sidon. In one 
sense, and that the highest, this feel- 
ing is just. The Phoenician power 
which the prophets denounced has 
entirely perished; even whilst 'the 
world's debate ' of the middle ages 
gave a new animation to these 
shores, the brilliant Tyre of Alex- 
ander and Bai-barossa nad no real 
connection with the Tyre of Hiram ; 
and perhaps no greater stretch of 
imagination in ancient history is 
required than to conceive how- the 
two small towns of Tyre and Sidon, 
as they now exist, could have been 
the parent cities of Carthage and 
Cadiz, the traders with Spain and 
Britain, the wonders of the East for 
luxury and magnificence. So total 
a destruction, for all political pur- 
poses, of the two great commercial 
states of the ancient world has 



been frequently held up to com- 
mercial states in the modern world, 
as showing the precarious tenure 
by which purely mercantile great- 
ness is held ; and in this respect the 
prophecies of the Hebrew seers Avere 
a real revelation of the coming for- 
tunes of the world, the more re- 
mai'kable because experience had 
not yet justified such a result. But 
to narrow the scope of these sub- 
lime visions to the actual buildings 
and sites of the cities is as unwar- 
ranted by facts as it is mistaken in 
idea. Sidon has probably never 
ceased to be a populous, and, on the 
whole, a flourishing town; small, 
indeed, as compared with its ancient 
grandeur, but never desolate, or 
without some portion of its old 
traffic ; and still encompassed round 
and round with the lines of its red 
silk manufacture. Tyre may per- 
haps have been in a state of ruin 
shortly after the Chaldrean, and sub- 
sequently after the Greek conquest 
of Syria. But it has always been 

speedily rebuilt The period 

during which it sunk to the lowest 
ebb was during the last years of 
the past and the first years of the 
present century; and the compara- 
tive desolation which it then ex- 
hibited no doubt presented some of 
the imagery on which so much 
stress has been laid, in order to con- 
vey the impression of its being a 
desolate rock, only used for the dry- 
ing of fishermen's nets. But as this 
was not the case before that period, 
and is certainly not the case now, 
it is idle to seek for the fulfilment of 
the ancient prediction within those 
limits ; and the rain of the empire 
of Tyre, combined with the revival 
and continuance of the town of 
Tyre, is thus a striking instance of 



214 



MATTHEW XI. 



ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be 22 
more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, at the day of judgment, 
than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto 23 
heaven, shalt be brought down to hell ; for if the mighty works 
which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it 
would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, that 24 
it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the day of 

Judgment, than for thee. At that time Jesus answered and 25 

said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, be- 
cause thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, 
and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so 26 



the moral and poetical, as distinct 
from the literal and prosaic, accom- 
plishment of the Prophetical Scrip- 
tures." pp. 266, 267. 23. 
And thou, Capernaum] "It 
would almost seem," says Stanley, 
pp. 376, 377, " as if the woe pro- 
nounced against Capernaum had 
been literally fulfilled, as if the 
doom of the cities of the southei-n 
sea had been visited upon those of 
the north, as if it had been more 
tolerable for the land of Sodom, in 
the day of its earthly judgment, 
than for Capernaum, ft has indeed 
been more tolerable in one sense; 
for the name, and pei'haps even the 
remains, of Sodom are still to be 
found on the shores of the Dead 
Sea, whilst that of Capernaum has, 
on the Lake of Genesareth, been 

utterly lost Still, it would 

be contrary to the general spirit of 
prophecy, whether in the Old or 
New Testament, to press this argu- 
ment too far. The woe, here as 
elsewhere, was doubtless spoken, 
not against the walls and houses of 
these villages, but against those 
who dwelt within them ; and, as a 
matter of fact, it would appear that 
they [the walls and houses] did 
survive the terrible curse for many 
generations." 23. to hell] to 

Hades. The abode of the dead, — 
not like Gehenna, — a place of tor- 
ture for the wicked alone. The ex- 
pression, shalt be brought down to hell, 
means, shall be utterly destroyed. 

25. and hast revealed them 
unto babes] Pure and childlike 



persons, — those who in singleness 
of heart, without prejudices or pre- 
possessions of their own, receive the 
words of Jesus. The worldly pru- 
dence of the wise blinds them to 
truths which require the entire sur- 
render of themselves to Christ. The 
philosophical wise men have their 
minds too much circumscribed by 
their speculations to take in spiritual 
truths like those taught by Jesus, 
which transcend the bounds' of their 
reasoning, and take them into higher 
and broader worlds of intelligence. 
Distinct from these are the babes, 
to whom the kingdom of God is re- 
vealed, and to whom in all ages of 
the world the Saviour's words apply. 
But in his exclamation of thanks- 
giving, he probably had more im- 
mediately in his mind at the time, 
the seventy who had just returned 
rejoicing from their first evange- 
lizing mission. " These unlearned, 
sincere, and childlike men, who," to 
use the language of a friend, u had 
no previously cherished system to 
support, — no abundant treasury of 
words, which they were liable, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, to sub- 
stitute for the very words of Jesus ; 
no habits of abstract reasoning 
which might lead them to state the 
results of reasoning for the facts of 
observation, — had been present at 
the giving of sight to the blind and 
hearing to the deaf. They had seen 
the lame freed from their infirmity, 
the sick healed, the dead raised, 
and those possessed of evil spirits 
restored to sanity and self-control 



MATTHEW XI. 



215 



27 it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered imto me 
of my Father : and no man knoweth the Son but the Father ; 
neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son. and he to 

28 -whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me all ye 

29 that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take 
my yoke upon you. and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly 

30 in heart ; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke 
is easy, and my burden is light. 



by Hi- word. They continually had 
■wondered at the 'gracious ' words 
which proceeded out of his mouth. 
They were full of expectation and 
reverence and admiration and of 
L:>ve. And they had gone out tell- 
ing just what they had seen and 
heard, just as. at the time, it had 
impressed their receptive minds and 
moved their hearts. The name of 
their Master was continually upon 
their tongues, and. by the power of 
the Spirit of Jesus, their whole being 
became, for the time, merged in 
his: they were one with him, and, 
in his name, they had performed his 
works. Now they were full of joy, 
and said, ' Lord, even the devils are 
subject to us. through thy name.' 
And Je-His himself rejoiced in spirit, 
thankfully acknowledging the wis- 
dom which had led. not the lettered 
and logical, not pre-occupied and 
trained minds, not the Pharisee or 
Sadducee, but the fishermen of 
Galilee, — the Seventy, and such as 
they, — to be at first his followers 
and witnesses to receive the true im- 
pression of Him, and to give it un- 
changed to others, — thaf the world 
might have transmitted to it, not a 
plan, a philosophy and abstract sys- 
tem, but a whole, concrete Gospel 
of salvation." 27. All 

things are delivered unto me 
of my Father] u I have been 
instructed in all by my Father." 
Norton. M My Father hath impart- 
ed everything to me." Campbell. 
" All things " appertaining to my 
office are delivered to me of mv 
Father." Whitby. Of these trans- 
lations Campbell 1 s is the most ex- 
act, the word " imparted *' bearing 
the double meaning, delivered and 
taught, which belongs to the original 



TrapeSo^n. and no man 

knoweth the Son but the Fa- 
ther] The blindness of most com- 
mentators to the explicit assertion 
of Jesus here is very remarkable. 
There is no more distinct, unequivo- 
cal, and unqualified assertion in the 
New Testament. And yet. in di- 
rect opposition to it, creeds have 
been formed, defining the meta- 
physical nature of Christ, and en- 
forcing their distinctions on a sub- 
ject which Jesus expressly declares 
that no man understands, as the 
only condition of church-member- 
ship in this world or of salvation 
in the world to come. It would be 
difficult to find a more audacious 
and presumptuous violation of the 
words of Jesus than the Athana- 
sian Creed, with its thrice repeated 
curses against those who do not re- 
ceive its doctrines. Je-us here de- 
clare-, that, while the Son reveals 
the Father, his own nature is not 
known except by the Father. He 
reflects the image of God, as the 
perfect mirror reflects the sky so 
entirely that it remains itself un- 
seen. 29. lowly in heart] 
" This expression describes the 
humility of the Redeemer, as in 
entire accordance with the bent of 
his holy will, and originating in the 
very depth of his heart ; hence hu- 
mility appears in Him as the cheer- 
ful result of free choice." Olshau- 
sen. Poverty of spirit comes from 
a sense of want : lowliness of heart 
arises from a cheerful, unquestion- 
ing, and almost unconscious sub- 
mission to the will of God ; or rather 
it comes from so living in the pres- 
ence of God, that his "love reaches 
into the soul, and calls out its 
powers in harmony with his will. 



$fc 



&-& 



216 MATTHEW XII. 1-14. 



CHAPTER XII. 

1-14. — Christ's View of the Sabbath. 

It is exceedingly difficult to get from the Gospels a 
clear idea of the order of events, or the length of time 
that elapsed between different events. The expression, 
" then," or " at that time," which recurs frequently in 
Matthew, does not, as in our language, indicate that what 
is now to be related belongs to the same occasion with 
that which has gone immediately before, but rather, that it 
belongs to a different time and occasion. It is merely a 
transition clause, nearly equivalent to the phrase, " and 
it came to pass," or " about that time." " It came to 
pass in those days " (Matthew iii. 1) applies to an event 
which took place after an interval of thirty years. 

1-8. According to a humane provision of the Mosaic 
law (Deut. xxiii. 25), those who were passing through 
a neighbor's field were allowed to pluck the ears of grain 
with their hand, though not to use a sickle. Dr. Robinson 
says, that when near Hebron, passing by the fields of 
ripening wheat, " We had here a beautiful illustration of 
Scripture. Our Arabs 'were an hungered,' and going 
into the fields, they ' plucked the ears of corn, and did 
eat, rubbing them in their hands.' On being questioned, 
they said this was an old custom, and no one would speak 
against it." The offence of the disciples consisted, not in 
taking the grain, but in doing it on the Sabbath. " He 
that reaps on the Sabbath," says a Jewish authority quoted 
by Lightfoot, "though never so little, is guilty. And to 
pluck the ears of corn is a kind of reaping; and who- 
soever plucks anything from the springing of his own 



MATTHEW XII. 9-14. 217 

fruit is guilty, under the name of a reaper." It was to 
sweep away all sophistries of this kind, and to re-establish 
the substance and spirit of the law in the place of the 
trifling and superstitious observances which had grown 
out of it, that Jesus, in this instance, replies to the fault- 
finders by facts, which they as Jews must admit to be 
right, and then (verse 8, Mark ii. 27) lays down the true 
principle by which all ceremonial rites and institutions 
are to be interpreted. 1. Necessity knows no laws of this 
kind, and cannot be bound by their authority. Have ye 
not read, he asks, how David (1 Sam. xxi. 6) and those 
who were with him, when driven by hunger, took bread, 
which by the law (Ex. xxix. 33) only the priests were 
allowed to eat ? 2. Where the worship of God requires 
the violation of the Sabbath, the lesser should yield to 
the greater. The form must give way, that the sub- 
stance may be retained. " Have ye not read in the law," 
(Num. xxviii. 9, 10,) he says, addressing them still as 
Jews, " that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple 
profane the temple, and are guiltless ? And I say unto 
you, that something greater than the temple is here." He 
then (Mark ii. 27) lays down the great principle by which 
all these rites are to be determined. " The Sabbath was 
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Wherever, 
therefore, it interferes with man's highest good, its severity 
must be relaxed. " If," he adds, " ye had recognized the 
meaning and the authority of the divine precept," (Hosea 
vi. 6,) ' Mercy is more to me than sacrifice,' ye would not, 
as you are now doing, condemn the innocent." The Son of 
Man has power to regulate the observance even of the 
Sabbath-day. 

9-14. On another occasion (another Sabbath, Luke 
vi. 9) he, under the general principle already quoted from 
Mark, brought up a third case, not wholly distinct per- 
haps from the first, in which the letter of the law is to 
be relaxed, and its spirit observed by works of charity 
19 



218 MATTHEW XII. 9-14. 

and mercy. There was present in the synagogue a man 
whose right hand was withered. The Pharisees were 
eagerly watching, with the hope that they might catch 
him violating the law. They ask him, therefore, whether 
it is allowable to perform cures on the Sabbath ! Jesus, 
knowing their thoughts (Luke vi. 8), asked the man to 
rise up and stand in the midst, which he did. Then, in 
reply to their question, he asked, which of the two is 
allowable on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil, to 
save life or to kill ? If any one among you have one 
sheep, and it fall into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not 
lay hold on it and lift it out ? But is not a man of far 
more consequence than a sheep ? So that it is lawful 
to do well on the Sabbath. They, unable to answer him, 
were silent. And Jesus, having looked round on them 
with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their hearts 
(Mark iii. 5), directed the man to stretch forth his hand. 
And he stretched it forth ; and it was restored whole as 
the other. The principle on which Jesus here reasoned 
is, that it is a sin to neglect the opportunity to do a 
good deed, and therefore works of mercy must not be 
neglected even on the Sabbath. He has thus clearly 
taught, 1. that a man's own necessities, 2. that the offices 
of public worship, and 3. that works of charity, may justify 
what would otherwise be a violation of the Sabbath. 

Jesus is recorded to have performed cures on the Sab- 
bath at seven different times ; — the cure of the demoniac 
(Mark i. 21) ; of Peter's wife's mother (Mark i. 29) ; of 
the impotent man (John v. 9) ; of the man born blind 
(John ix. 14) ; of the woman with a spirit of infirmity 
(Luke xiii. 10-17) ; of the man who had a dropsy (Luke 
xiv. 1) ; besides the one related above. Unquestionably 
one object which he had in performing so many miracles 
on the Sabbath, was to do away the narrow superstitious 
formalities in which that merciful institution had become 
incrusted, and by which its beneficent design was per- 
verted or impaired and destroyed. 



MATTHEW XII. 14-37. 219 



14-37. — Hatred of the Pharisees against Jesus. 

14—21. Here is the first allusion to any conspiracy 
against his life by the enemies of Jesus. It was evident 
that he was producing a decided and powerful impression 
on the minds of the people, and that he carefully abstained 
from any violation of the law, yet his principles of inter- 
pretation, and the feelings with which he regarded its 
observances, were diametrically opposite to theirs. In this 
case, feeling the pungency of his rebuke, and unable to 
say a word in reply to his reasoning, the Scribes and 
Pharisees were (Luke vi. 11) inflamed with rage, and 
took counsel (Mark iii. 6) with the Herodians, who were 
probably the adherents of Herod, and rather political than 
religious partisans, how they might destroy him. Jesus, 
knowing their designs, withdrew to the Sea of Galilee, 
where immense multitudes gathered round him from all 
the neighboring country, — from Jerusalem, from Idumea 
and beyond the Jordan on the east, and from Tyre and 
Sidon on the west. This would only increase the appre- 
hensions and malice of his enemies. Jesus did all that 
he could consistently with the great purpose of his ministry 
to avoid notoriety. He severely charged those on whom 
(t his healing miracles were wrought not to make him known. 

22-37. — Casting out Satan by Satan. 

About this time, when the popular mind was wrought 
up to a high pitch of expectation and excitement, there 
was brought to Jesus a demoniac, blind and dumb, whom 
he healed, so that the blind and dumb both spake and 
saw. There is nothing mentioned that would indicate in- 
sanity, nor is it possible to discover what the symptoms 
were that marked the case as one of demoniacal posses- 
sion. It seems, however, to have been regarded as an 
extraordinary case, and the cure caused an unusual sensa- 






220 MATTHEW XII. 22-37. 

tion of astonishment among the multitudes, who ask if this 
is not the Son of David, i. e. the Messiah ? Such a sugges- 
tion could not be endured by the Pharisees. In the ex- 
tremity of their malignant jealousy and scorn, hardening 
themselves against the holiness of his life and the merciful 
character of his acts, they contemptuously reply, that he 
does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the prince 
of demons. He, knowing all that was passing in their 
minds, overthrew their taunt by reasoning which they 
from their point of view could not answer, and then, 31, 32, 
exposed their unpardonable wickedness in the severest 
sentence that ever fell from his lips. 

The 21st verse is one of some difficulty. " If I by 
Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your children, 
i. e. your disciples, cast them out ? wherefore they shall 
be your judges." There is no doubt that there were 
at that time men who practised among the Jews the pre- 
tended art of expelling demons. Josephus, Antiq., VIII. 
2. 5, appeals to an extraordinary proof of this fact which 
one of these exorcists had given before Vespasian in the 
presence of a part of the Roman army. There was a 
belief among the Jews that these men actually expelled 
demons by their art, and it was from this their point 
of view that Jesus addressed his argument to the Phari- 
sees. If I, in my cures, which shake to its very centre 
the dominion of Satan, am in league with him, by whom 
do your disciples perform their cures? Let them answer 
the question, and be your judges. Jesus was doing nothing 
more than they were pretending to do. Why then should 
he be adjudged as guilty of a greater crime ? 

But does not he, in using such language, countenance 
the belief that they had the power to cast out demons ? 
This brings up a very interesting and important subject 
of inquiry. How far could a being with the more than 
human endowments and knowledge which Jesus possessed, 
looking through men's thoughts, and the shadows around 



MATTHEW XII. 22-37. 221 

them, be among the Jews, and converse freely with them, 
without suffering their false ideas and conceptions to pass 
uncorrected ? Parents are every day pursuing this course 
with their children, knowing that it would be a vain 
thing to try to correct them in regard to many false ideas 
which they are not yet able to understand, but which they 
will outgrow in the natural progress of their minds. It 
is not by specific corrections now, but by the gradual 
unfolding and enlightenment of their minds, that they are 
to be set free from these mistaken notions. So Christ 
came, not to correct specific errors, one by one, but to 
bring into the world those great elements of moral and 
religious life and thought, which, as they are received 
and applied, may lift men up above their errors, and set 
them free from their mistaken ideas. In order to gain 
access to them, he must meet them as they are, and reason 
with them from premises which they believe to be true. 
By seeking to correct their established convictions and 
habits of thought in regard to common and comparatively 
unimportant matters, he would rouse their prejudices, and 
close their minds against him in his more important influ- 
ences and instructions. Their errors, therefore, he some- 
times uses as illustrations or arguments by which to intro- 
duce into their minds truths which, once lodged there, and 
acting through their lives, shall at length set them free, 
and drive out the very errors by which they gained ad- 
mittance. It is evident that this must essentially modify 
the form of any revelation from God to men, in its adap- 
tation to the existing wants and limitations of their nature. 
The reasoning of this whole discourse proceeds in this 
way. It meets the Pharisees on their own ground, with- 
out one word to show whether that ground be tenable or 
not. In this way, he brings before them the momentous 
truth which it is his purpose to declare. If the very 
centre of Satan's kingdom is shaken by these works of 
mine, and if, as I have shown from your own point of 
19* 



222 MATTHEW XII. 31, 32. 

view, I have done these works, not by the aid of Beelze- 
bub, but, 28, by the spirit, and Luke xi. 20, the finger 
of God, then in this overthrow of the powers of darkness 
you may be sure that the kingdom of God has come 
upon you unawares. For how can the house of the strong 
man, thoroughly armed and on his guard (Luke xi. 21), be 
entered, unless a stronger than he overcome, and disarm, 
and bind him ? But, in this warfare, he continues, he 
who is not with me is against me. " Wherefore," he says, 
31, 32, referring to the whole course of reasoning by which 
he has proved that these are the works of God against 
which they have set themselves, — " wherefore, though every 
sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men, yet blasphemy 
against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven to men, 

either in this world [alavi, — ceon~\ or the world 

to come." 

31, 32. — The Unpardonable Sin. 

What is the sin thus fearfully and hopelessly condemned ? 
All enlightened modern commentators, we believe, agree 
that "it is not one particular act of sin which is here 
condemned, but a state of sin, and that a wilful, deter- 
mined opposition" to what is highest and holiest. He 
who speaks against the Son of Man may do it ignorantly, 
or through traditional prejudices, or from a sudden im- 
pulse, and may repent and be forgiven. "But he," to 
use the words of the Greek father Euthymius, " who, seeing 
my Divine works which God alone can perform, ascribes 
them to Beelzebub as you now do, and so blasphemes 
against the Holy Spirit, or the Divinity itself (for he now 
calls it the Holy Spirit), — he, plainly determined and fixed 
on what is evil, and knowingly insulting God, sins with- 
out excuse, and shall not be forgiven." His sin is not 
one of impulse, ignorance, or weakness. But he has gone 
on knowingly sinning and hardening himself against the 
Holy Spirit, maligning its influences, and attributing them 



MATTHEW XII. 38-50. 223 

to a diabolical agency, till he has reached such a degree 
of hardihood in wickedness that he is beyond all hope 
of repentance or amendment, and therefore beyond all hope 
of forgiveness. The settled frame of his mind is so wil- 
fully and knowingly turned against God in his plainest 
and holiest influences and teachings, that he has made re- 
pentance, and through it reformation, an impossibility to 
him, whether in this world \ceon~\ or the world to come. 

Jesus then turns again to their blasphemous charge 
against the Holy Spirit, in ascribing actions such as they 
had witnessed to the Prince of demons. Do at least, he 
says, be consistent with yourselves. Allow either that the 
tree and fruit are both good, or that they are both bad 
together. The tree is known by its fruit. But, 34, how, 
on this principle, can we expect anything good from you, 
since, as is the heart, so must the words be. So true 
is this law of our nature, so is even the careless, idle 
word imbued with the spirit, and so does it indicate the 
disposition, from which it comes, that, "I say unto you, 
for every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give 
account in the day of judgment." The careless, idle words 
which men utter are perhaps the truest index to their 
character. 



38-50. — Further Remarks of Jesus. 

38-40. On another occasion the Scribes and Pharisees, 
in a captious, unbelieving spirit, asked of him a sign. 
He knew their motives, and declared to them that no 
sign should be given except that of the prophet Jonah, 
as foreshadowing his own death. It is remarkable, as 
Dr. Furness has said, that whenever a sign was asked 
of Jesus, he invariably referred to his death, " as the 
greatest sign that he could possibly give of his truth." 
(John vi. 30, 51.) The reference to the book of Jonah 
proves nothing conclusively respecting the view that Jesus 



224 MATTHEW XII. 46-50. 

might have of it, whether as an historical narrative, or an 
instructive allegory, framed like some of his own parables, 
to set forth important lessons of truth and duty. 

He then, 41-45, as he had done twice before in different 
connections, spoke of the way in which the generation must 
be condemned by those who had gone before, if they 
should slight the greater privileges which were granted 
to them. And finally he likens them to a demoniac who 
is for a time apparently cured, but with a relapse of 
his malady is in a far worse condition than before. The 
picture, which is in accordance with the prevalent ideas 
of the Jews, is full of life and interest. The unclean 
spirit, cast out of its comfortable abode, wanders, 43, into 
dry, i. e. desert, uncultivated, and desolate places, seeking 
rest, and finding none. And at last, tired of this he 
joins to himself seven other spirits worse than himself, 
and finding his old abode empty, swept, and furnished, 
they enter in and dwell there. So with this genera- 
tion. However the Jews may have been freed for a 
time by their afflictions from their old idolatries, yet the 
old spirit and others far worse had returned, and now 
their last end (xxiii. 45) is worse than all that had gone 
before. , The same remarks apply to an individual, re- 
formed for a season, and then relapsing into his old sins, 
with others still worse added to them. 

46 - 50. — Jesus and his Mother. 

Any impression that we might get here of apparent 
harshness in the conduct of Jesus towards his mother 
will be removed by attending to all the circumstances. 
Not only was the house where he sat full of people, but 
probably, as in another case (Mark ii. 2) the * way of 
approach to the door was crowded, so that those who 
were out could not get at him (Luke viii. 19) on account 
of the multitude. While he was in the midst of his 



MATTHEW XII. 46-50. 225 

weighty and impressive discourse, word was passed in to 
him (Luke viii. 20) that his mother and brethren were 
without desiring to speak to him. Immediately he turned 
this incident into an occasion of teaching the higher spirit- 
ual relationships which he had come to establish, and asked, 
" Who is my mother, and who are my brethren ? " Then 
looking round about on those who were sitting around 
him (Mark iii. 34) he stretched forth his hand towards his 
disciples, and said, " Behold my mother and my brethren. 
For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is 
in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother." 

We learn from John vii. 5, that his brethren did not 
believe in him, and Mark, iii. 21, tells us that when his 
friends or relatives heard how he was situated and what 
he was doing, they went out to lay hold on him ; for 
they said, " He is beside himself." They evidently at 
that time did not at all understand him. It is more 
difficult to enter into the feelings of his mother. His 
past history and his character, as it showed itself to her 
in the intimate relations of life, must, we infer from the 
few glimpses that are given to us (Luke ii. 41-52, John 
ii. 1-12) have been such as to fill her with wonder and 
expectation. She pondered these things in her heart. But, 
as a human being, she doubtless had her alternations of 
feeling. She knew not how his work should be accom- 
plished or what it was. When her relatives and possibly 
even her own sons declared that he was beside him- 
self, her maternal feelings must have been touched, and, 
without sympathizing with them in their unbelief, she may 
have been painfully moved by vague apprehensions of 
impending danger, and hopes of coming greatness, so that 
she went with them to ease her anxieties by seeing him, 
and perhaps to persuade him to withdraw himself for a 
season from the perils that were gathering round him. 
If such were her feelings, nothing could do more to as- 
suage her fears, awaken her reverence, and re-establish 



226 



MATTHEW XII. 



her faith, than the words here uttered, which in their 
calm dignity lifted him above all earthly interests and 
relationships. 



NOTES. 



At that time Jesus went on the sabbath- day through the 
corn ; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck 
the . ears of corn, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, 2 
they said unto him, Behold thy disciples do that which is not 
lawful to do upon the sabbath-day. But he said unto them, 3 
Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered, 
and they that were with him ? bow he entered into the house 4 
of God, and did eat the shew-bread, which was not lawful for 
him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for 
the priests ? Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the 5 
sabbath-days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and 
are blameless ? But I say unto you, that in this place is one 6 
greater than the temple. But if ye had known what this mean- 7 
eth, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice," ye would not 
have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord 8 
even of the sabbath-day. 



2. when the Pharisees saw 

it] They must have been follow- 
ing him through the fields in that 
hypocritical spirit of ceremonial 
observance that would be ready to 
measure his steps after him, and 
find it out, if he should walk one 
yard beyond the prescribed length 
of a sabbath-day's journey. This 
whole chapter, down to the 46th 
verse, is taken up in showing this 
trait of the Pharisees, and the terri- 
ble severity with which it was re- 
buked by Jesus. 3. Have 
ye not read] " At that very 
time of year Leviticus was being 
read on sabbaths, the book in which 
there occur so many precepts as to 
sacrifices which were required to be 
performed, even on the sabbath." 
Bengel. 4. house of God] 



Strictly speaking, there was no 
house of God at that time, but only 
a tent in which the Ark of the 
Covenant was kept. But, as in Ex. 
xxiii. 19, the tent was sometimes 
called the house of God. 
which is not laAvful for him 
to eat] Ex. xxix. 33. For the 
shew-bread, see Leviticus xxiv. 5- 8. 
From this reference and verse 8, as 
well as from a Jewish authority 
cited by Lightfoot, it is rendered 
probable that David went there 
either on the sabbath, or just as 
the sabbath was going out, which 
would make his example still more 
pertinent in this case. 8. 

for the Son of man] " Why is 
Christ called the Son of man, but 
just because he represents humanity 
as a whole, — because, as a second 



MATTHEW XII. 



227 



9 And -when he was departed thence, he went into their syna- 
10 gogue. And, behold, there was a man which had his hand 

withered. And they asked him saying, Is it lawful to heal on 
n the sabbath-days^? that they might accuse him. And he said 

unto them, What man shall there be among you that shall 

have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath-day, 
12 will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out ? How much then is 

a man better than a sheep ! Wherefore it is lawful to do well 
is on the sabbath-davs. Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth 



14 whole, like as the other. Then the Pharisees went out, and 
held a council against him, how they might destroy him. 

is But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence ; 
and great multitudes followed him ; and he healed them all, 

16 and charged them that they should not make him known ; 

17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the 
is prophet, saying : " Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, 

my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased ; I will put my 
spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. 



Adam, he bears in himself and sets 
up a new humanity? This is the 
key to the whole statement, ac- 
cording to which, in the first place, 
Mark ii. 27, as the words stand, 
contain a truth as pi-ofound as it 
is simple. So, in the Talmud, R. 
Jonathan says, literally, ' The sab- 
bath is in your own hands, not you 
in its hands, for it is said: The sab- 
bath is for you.' (Ex. xvi. 29; Ezek. 
xx. 12.) It is, according to God's 
design, an ordinance and institution 
of mercy for the good of man, ap- 
pointed, in the first instance, for 
rest and refreshment (Deut. v. 14; 
Ex. xxiii. 12); and then further for 
blessing and sanctification." Stier. 
11. and lift it out] 
" Our Lord evidently asks this as a 
thing allowed and done at the time 
when he spoke ; but subsequently 
(perhaps, suggests Stier, on account 
of these words of Christ) it was 
forbidden in the Gemara; and only 
permitted to lay planlcs for the beast 
to come ouV Alford. 15. 

and great multitudes] The pop- 
ulousness of Galilee at that time, 
compared with what it is at present, 



was very great. According to Jose- 
phus, ft had more than 200 cities, 
the least of which contained 15,000 
inhabitants; and the whole province 
contained more than 3,000,000 of 
people. According to Strabo, Gali- 
lee was full of Egyptians, Arabians, 
and Phoenicians. (Lib. XVI.) See 
Milman's Hist. Christianity, I. 4. 

18-20. " This quotation," 
says Dr. Palfrey, " from the proph- 
ecy of Isaiah (xlii. 1-4) accords pre- 
cisely with neither the Hebrew nor 
the Septuagint." The Hebrew is 
thus translated by Dr. Noyes: 
" Behold my servant, whom I uphold, 
My chosen,in whom my soul delighteth; 
I have put my spirit upon him ; 
He shall give laws to the nations. 
He shall not cry .aloud, nor raise a 

clamor, 
Nor cause his voice to he heard in the 

street. 
The bruised reed he shall not break, 
And the glimmering tlax he shall not 

quench ; 
He shall give laws according to truth. 
He shall not fail, nor become weary, 
Until he shall have established laws in 

the earth, 
And distant nations shall wait for his 
instruction." 



228 MATTHEW XII. 

He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall any man hear his 19 
voice in the streets ; a bruised reed shall he not break, and 20 
smoking flax shall he not quench ; till he send forth judgment U* 
unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust." 21 

Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind 22 
and dumb ; and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and 
dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, 23 
and said, Is not this the son of David ? But when the Phari- 24 
sees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, 
but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew 25 
their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided 
against itself is brought to desolation ; and every city or house 
divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out 26 
Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his king- 
dom stand ? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom 27 
do your children cast them out ? Therefore they shall be your 
judges. But if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then the 28 
kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else, how can one enter 29 
into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first 
bind the strong man ; and then he will spoil his house. He 30 
that is not with me is against me ; and he that gathereth not 
with me, scattereth abroad. Wherefore I say unto you, all 31 
manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men ; but 
the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven 

20. a bruised reed ..... th e Philistines (2 Kings i. 2). The 
smoking flax] introduced here to Jews applied it to the prince of 
show the merciful and compas- devils > as the most contemptuous of 
sionate nature of Jesus in his deal- all names. 25. their 
ing with the broken-hearted and the thoughts] their thoughts, nnagi- 
contrite. Lightfoot, however, savs: nations, and feelings; i. e. he knew 
" He shall not make so great a noise the secret motives from which they 
as is made from the breaking of a s P ok e, when they charged him with 
reed now already bruised and half doin g his beneficent and divine 
broken, or from the hissing of smok- works with a diabolical design, and 
ing flax only, when water is thrown hy the aid of the prince of devils, 
upon it." ' 23. Is not this The Greek word, ivdyfirjaas, is 
the son of David ?] A name much stronger and more comprc- 
which evidently among the Jews hensive than the English word 
was applied to the Messiah (ix. 27; thoughts, including as it does the 
xv. 22 ; xxi. 9 ; and especially xxii. emotions and purposes connected 
42). 24. Beelzebul] (for with the thoughts. 28. is 
such is the established reading here, come unto you] Wesley, Avho 
as well as x. 25) means Lord of avowedly copied from Bengel, ex- 
mire, or Lord of place, as Beelzebub plains the passage: " The kingdom 
does Lord of flies. It was the name of God is come upon you — una- 
of a God worshipped, at Ekron, by wares, before you expected : so the 



MATTHEW XII. 



229 



3i unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son 
of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever speaketh 
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in 

33 this world, neither in the world to come. Either make the 
tree good, and his fruit good ; or else make the tree corrupt, 

34 and his fruit corrupt ; for the tree is known by his fruit. O 
generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good 



word implies." 32. speak- 

eth against the Holy Ghost] 

" This probably refers to the Divine 
nature of Christ, — the power by 
which he wrought his miracles. 
There is no evidence that it refers 
to the third person of the Trinity." 
Barnes. " It was blasphemy against 
the Spirit of God to ascribe acts 
which bore the manifest impress of 
the Divine Goodness in their essen- 
tially beneficent character to any 
other source but the Father of 
Mercies." Milman. " Against the 
Holy Ghost means against the most 
direct and conclusive testimony by 

which the person is entirely 

convinced, and consequently sins 
with the most complete knowledge 
and will ; and this is the idea most 
essentially belonging to the unpar- 
donable sin It is committed 

when the man knows, with entire 

conviction, what he is doing 

It is distinguished from every other 
pardonable sin of man by this, that 
in it there is not even a minimum 
of satanic deceit practised upon the 
understanding, or compulsion of 
any nature, or by any creature 
upon the will; but the purely evil 
is willed, spoken, and done instead 
of the known and rejected good, the 
lie as such instead of the blas- 
phemed truth." Stier. 

in this world, neither in the 
Avorld to come] The word alcov 
(ceon), which is here translated 
world, can be rendered by no cor- 
responding ord in our language. 
It means a period of time, an age, 
or a dispensation. In 2 Tim. i. 9 
we read, " before the world began," 
more exactly, " before the worlds 
began," and still more literally, 
"before the times of the worlds," 
ages, ceons. In 1 Cor. ii. 7 we read of 
20 



the wisdom " which God ordained 
to our glory before the tcorlds" i. e. 
the aeons, ages, or dispensations. 
These passages imply in the past a 
succession of 020ns, ages, or dispen- 
sations. Jesus speaks more than 
once (xiii. 39, 40, 49) of " the end 
of the world ; " more exactly, the 
winding up or consummation of the 
aeon, the age, or dispensation then 
existing. In Heb. ix. 26 Ave read, 
" in the end of the world," literally, 
at "the completion," or "consum- 
mation of the ages." As the word 
aeon, in its application to the past 
and present condition of things im- 
plies only a limited duration of 
time, the natural inference is that 
in its application to the future con- 
dition of things, it does not neces- 
sarily involve the idea of endless 
duration. As the word is applied 
to the past in the plural number, 
and thus denotes a succession of 
aeons in the past, so when applied 
to the future in the plural number 
(Eph. ii. 7, " in the aeons, or ages 
which are to come,") it in like man- 
ner denotes a succession of aeons. 
These aeons thus extend from the 
past into the future, each one at its 
completion giving way to that which 
is to succeed, and each, whether in 
the past or the future, being only 
one in the succession of ages. 
When, therefore, we read in the 
passage before us of a sin which 
shall be forgiven neither in this 
world (aeon) nor the world (aeon) to 
come, we find in the language noth- 
ing that necessarily involves the 
idea of eternity, since the age to 
come may, like' each of those which 
have gone before, at length fulfil its 
purpose, and give place to a yet 
higher dispensation beyond. See 
xxv. 46. 






230 MATTHEW XII. 

things ? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
speaketh. A good man, out of the good treasure of the heart, 35 
bringeth forth good things ; and an evil man, out of the evil 
treasure, bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, that 36 
every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account 
thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt 37 
be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. 

Then certain of the Scribes and of the Pharisees answered 38 
saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he an- 39 
swered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation 
seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it, 
but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three 40 
days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of 
man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this genera- 41 
tion, and shall condemn it ; because they repented at the 
preaching of Jonas ; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. 
The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this 42 
generation, and shall condemn it ; for she came from the utter- 
most parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon ; and, 

behold, a greater than Solomon is here. When the un- 43 

clean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry 

36. every idle word] at last the measure of iniquity is 
There is no authority for giving any fuil, and hopeless ruin ensues. For 
worse meaning to * the adjective, the same thovight more fully earned 
The idle word may be a wicked, out, see xxiii. 35. 43^ When 
or it may be a good, word. To give the unclean spirit is gone out 
account does not necessarily imply of a man] Man, the individual, 
condemnation. The meaning is, stands here for the Jewish nation, 
that for everything we say, down who are represented as being then 
even to our idle words, we are to sevenfold worse than ever before, 
b 3 held responsible, when in the day The connection with the previous 
of reckoning the account of our sentences is unbroken. You wicked 
lives shall be rendered up. men seeking a sign, shall find none 
40. three days and three nights] except the sign of the prophet 
By the Hebrew reckoning, the day Jonah ; and even that, while it 
when the account begins, and that foreshadows my death, shall like- 
when it ends, are included in the wise testify to your condemnation, 
number of days. " A day and a as will also the Queen of the South, 
night," says a Jewish tradition, But what better could be expected ? 
" make an onah, and a part of an When the unclean spirit is gone out 
onah is as the whole." 41. of a man, and the man fails to for- 
with this generation] Here is tify himself by religious thoughts 
an indication of the cumulative and faithful deeds, and remains 
nature of sin in a community, and empty, and thus prepared for the 
of the judgments visited upon it return of what is evil, then that 
from generation to generation, till spirit, with seven others worse than 



MATTHEW XII. 



231 



44 places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will 
return into my house, from whence I came out. And when he 

45 is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then 
goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits, more 
wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there ; and 
the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall 
it be also unto this wicked generation. 

46 While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and 

47 his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then 
one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand 

4s without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and 
said unto him that told him, Who is my mother ? and who are 

49 my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his dis- 

50 ciples, and said, Behold, my mother, and my brethren. For 
whosoever shall do the will of my Father, which is in heaven, 
the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. 



itself, shall enter in and dwell 
there. So shall it be with this evil 
generation, as compared with the 
generations which have gone before. 
47. thy brethren] The 
word brother is still used in the 
East, as it was in the days of Abra- 
ham (Gen. xiv. 16, compared with 



xi. 31), to denote a near relative, as, 
e. g. a nephew or cousin, and even 
to denote a friend. It has been 
supposed that the word is so used 
here; but its connection with the 
word mother would imply that it 
is used in its stricter sense. See 
xiii. 55. 



232 MATTHEW XIII. PARABLES. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Parables. 

The fountain of life within flows forth into outward 
acts, and those outward acts are an emblem of the mind 
from which they come. So in nature, whatever we see 
proceeds from a fountain of life within, and is an emblem 
and token of the divine source from which it proceeds. 
Everything in nature, therefore, is an expression of the 
Divine Mind, and has its message or its influence from 
Him for us. The lightest forms of nature associate them- 
selves with our deepest feelings or our highest thoughts, 
and the more entirely we are born into the realm of 
spiritual things, that is, the more alive our spiritual per- 
ceptions are, the more shall we be able to see the tokens 
and to feel the influences of the Divine Mind in our in- 
tercourse with nature. To him who looks through the 
visible forms to the great spiritual realities which they 
would express, every object around us, every change in 
nature, as an expression of the Divine Mind, is the out- 
shadowing or the foreshadowing of something higher than 
itself. This great fact finds its way more or less into 
our common speech. The morning or evening of the day 
leads us spontaneously to think of the morning and even- 
ing of life. When we see the sun go down, and as it 
departs light up the western heavens with a richness and 
glory which the day has never known, we can hardly 
help thinking of the good man's life, which when with- 
drawn from our sight throws around the whole place 
where he dwelt, in gracious and touching remembrances, 
affections, virtues, and prayers more beautiful and holy 



MATTHEW XIII. PARABLES. 233 

than when he was bodily present with us. So the flower, 
the fruit, the leaf is each suggestive to us of thoughts 
and emotions which lie in a higher plane of life. Thus it 
was that Jesus saw all outward objects and events in their 
higher relations, and made use of them to express the higher 
facts which they bodied forth to his mind. No one can 
understand his language who receives it merely in its 
literal acceptation ; " for the letter killeth, but the spirit 
giveth life " (2 Cor. iii. 6). We have only to open the 
Gospels to see how in his use of speech material things 
are made to lift us up into the realm of spiritual being. 
"When he says, " Ye are the salt of the earth," he speaks 
in no literal sense. When he speaks of light and dark- 
ness, it is the light and darkness of the soul. When he 
speaks of hell fire, he speaks of it, not in its material, but 
its spiritual, sense, as an emblem of the anguish into which 
the souls of the wicked shall be cast, unless they repent 
and are converted. So when he says, "Whoso eateth 
my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life," it is 
in the higher and spiritual sense that these expressions 
are used. The devout heart catches this inner meaning 
of the Saviour's words, and finds them, as he has said, 
becoming to him " spirit and life." He that would read 
the Gospels in any other way loses all that is most holy 
and divine. It is as if we should confine our eye to the 
glass of the telescope, instead of looking through it to 
the worlds of light which it reveals beyond. 

These remarks are especially applicable to the chapter 
before us, which has been called the chapter of parables. 
The parables, like all figurative language and most of 
our reasoning from analogy, derive their power from the 
fact that material things, not only have certain established 
relations among themselves, but also certain relations to 
spiritual things, which they may help to illustrate, ex- 
plain, and enforce. The connection is not one arbitrarily 
assumed by man, but has its foundation in the constitu- 
20* 



234 MATTHEW XIII. PARABLES. 

tion of the universe and of the human mind. The analogies 
which reach from one department of thought to another, 
from things material to things intellectual or spiritual, have 
impressed themselves on all languages, and perhaps most 
decidedly on those which have been used to express the 
highest spiritual ideas. The simplest mind catches these 
resemblances, and delights in the higher meanings which 
are bodied forth in the most common forms of speech. 
The image borrowed from some familiar object of sense, 
and standing as the representative of some higher truth, 
fixes itself in the mind, and acts upon it through the 
imagination with a power which more literal terms could 
not have. The greatest poets, the profoundest reasoners, 
and the common language of mankind alike abound in 
examples of this kind. Shakespeare, for instance, may be 
taken to show how, in the highest poetry, images drawn 
from material things or common life shadow forth to the 
heart a deeper, higher, or more affecting meaning. 

" The immortal part needs a physician." — Henry IV. 
" The benediction of these covering heavens 

Fall on your heads like dew." — Cymbtline. 
" Death lies on her, like an untimely frost 

Upon the sweetest flower of all the field." — Romeo and Juliet. 

No literal terms of description could convey to the mind 
the ideas here suggested with such exquisite beauty and 
tenderness. The Scriptures abound in expressions of this 
sort, which introduce into the mind some image easily com- 
prehended, that fills the whole soul with sentiments and 
emotions suggested by it. Take expressions like these: 
" The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not 
saved." (Jer. viii. 20.) " The night is far spent, the day is 
at hand." (Rom. xiii. 12.) "Abide with us ; for it is toward 
evening, and the day is far spent." (Luke xxiv. 29.) " I 
am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known 
of mine : and I lay down my life for the sheep." (John x. 
14, 15.) " Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me 



MATTHEW Xin. PARABLES. 235 

and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, 
and my burden is light." (Matt. xi. 29, 30.) We see at 
once how the simple facts, which are presented in the words, 
spontaneously awaken other ideas ; and the images, so fa- 
miliar to us in nature, carry us on to thoughts which lie 
wholly beyond them. And not merely are other thoughts 
suggested, but sentiments and emotions, which we can hardly 
define, are awakened by the words, and lift us up into a 
higher sphere. 

" It is not merely," says Trench in the introduction to his 
Notes on the Parables, " that these analogies assist to make 
the truth intelligible, or, if intelligible before, present it more 
vividly to the mind, which is all that some will allow them. 
Their power lies deeper than this, in the harmony uncon- 
sciously felt by all men, and by deeper minds continually 
recognized and plainly perceived, between the natural and 
spiritual worlds, so that analogies from the first are felt to be 
something more than illustrations, happily but yet arbitra- 
rily chosen. They are arguments, and may be alleged as 
witnesses ; the world of nature being throughout a witness 
for the world of spirit, proceeding from the same head, grow- 
ing out of the same root, and being constituted for that very 
end. All lovers of truth readily acknowledge these myste- 
rious harmonies, and the force of arguments derived from 
them." 

All just reasoning from analogy depends on the recogni- 
tion of a unity of purpose running through all the works of 
God, and making them all, as parts of one great plan, point 
upward to the same results. The outward system of things 
stands forth to the mind as the representative of higher 
powers than address themselves to the senses. " The heavens 
declare the glory of God." (Ps. xix.) " The invisible things 
of Him, even his eternal power and godhead, are clearly 
seen from the creation of the world being understood by 
the things that are made." (Rom. i. 20.) " All things here," 
says Tertullian, " are witnesses of a resurrection ; all things 



i 



236 MATTHEW XIII. PARABLES. 

in nature are prophetic outlines of Divine operations, God 
not merely speaking parables, but doing them." Not only in 
processes of reasoning, but in the finer and more important 
processes by which the imagination is quickened and the 
affections reached, we are constantly drawn up from what is 
material and temporal to what is spiritual and eternal. 
Works like those of Dante and Milton borrow their marvel- 
lous power from this fact. Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress," 
and Baxter's " Saint's Rest," delight the heart, and feed the 
religious sentiments of generation after generation through 
the mysterious but vital connections which bind what is seen 
to what is unseen. This alone makes it possible to weave, 
from scenes and incidents addressed to the eye, a narrative 
which shall bring us into connection with a higher order of 
beings and events. The language which has most deeply 
moved the heart of the world, and especially that which acts 
most powerfully on the masses, and at the same time on the 
purest religious minds, partakes largely of this character. 
The world is, not only a school-room, in which visible objects 
serve as diagrams by which to prove the reality of spiritual 
things ; but on every side are pictures addressing themselves 
to the eye, through the eye to the imagination, and through 
the imagination to the heart, awakening our spiritual sensi- 
bilities, and educating our whole natures to a higher life. 
We can hardly overestimate the influence in the religious 
training of the world, which has been exercised in this 
way by the pictures from nature, or from common life, 
which have been used by Jesus to represent spiritual ideas, 
excite religious emotions, or help us on in our religious ex- 
perience. 

The parables belong to this department of religious in- 
struction. The value of a parable is not to be estimated by 
the single truth which it is employed to set forth, however 
great that truth may be. Its accompaniments, its indirect 
and subtle influences, through the imagination, the new 
meaning which it thus gives to nature or to life, the atmos- 



MATTHEW XIII. 1-9, 18-23. 237 

phere of spiritual beauty, joy, or reverence, in which it en- 
folds the mind of the child, and by which it ministers to its 
spiritual and immortal life, are to be taken into account as 
adjuncts, apart from which the truth would be left compara- 
tively without interest and without power. The parable of 
The Sower who went forth to sow, of the Wheat and the 
Tares, of the Ten Virgins, the Rich Man and Lazarus, 
The Good Samaritan, and the Prodigal Son, are among the 
most impressive and influential agencies in our religious 
education. 

As to the rules of interpretation, too much stress must 
not be laid on the details in judging of their relation to the 
main truth. Their office is rather, by completing the picture, 
to act on the imagination, to touch the feelings, and subdue 
the mind to the tone which is needed in order that it may 
receive the truth. This is a most important office. In the 
Prodigal Son, for instance, the little details which go to fill 
out the picture of want and wretchedness are what give its 
affecting pathos to the story. And the fact that they per- 
form this essential office should put us on our guard against 
trying to force all the minute particulars into our interpreta- 
tion. A parable is not an allegory. 

1-9, 18-23. The Parable of the Sowee. 

It is not improbable that as Jesus, from the boat in which 
he sat, looked up along the sweep of the hills that converged 
downward to the lake, he may have seen a sower actually 
going forth to sow, and pointing to him, or directing the eyes 
of the multitude towards him for a moment, he may have 
drawn his instruction from what was actually passing before 
them. It is also possible that the opening words, " Be- 
hold, a sower went forth to sow," were made more touch- 
ingly impressive to the devout Jews by calling to mind the 
affecting language of Psalm cxxvi. : " They that sow in 
tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, 



238 MATTHEW XIII. 10-23. 

bearing precious seed, shall, doubtless, come again with re- 
joicing, bringing his sheaves with him." It may also, there 
by the waters of the lake, have connected itself with the 
promise in Isaiah xxxii. 20 : " Blessed are ye that sow be- 
side all waters." Stanley, in his Sinai and Palestine, pp. 
42 - 48, speaks of a field in the plain of Genesareth, where 
all the conditions involved in this parable were fulfilled ; — 
the cornfield running down to the lake, the trodden pathway 
through it, the rich soil, the rocky ground protruding into it 
here and there, large bushes of thorns springing up in it, 
and countless birds of all kinds. 

The object of the parable is to show the different states of 
mind, on account of which different persons hear the same 
truth with such widely different results. There is the 
hardened mind, which, hearing the word but not understand- 
ing it, does not take it in at all, but leaves it on the surface 
to be carried away at once by the slightest temptation, the 
first suggestion of the wicked one. There is the shallow 
mind, quick and transient in its emotions, receiving it with 
a momentary warmth of joy which causes it quickly to 
spring up, but the plani having no depth of character in 
which to take root, in the first heats of opposition or perse- 
cution wilts away. There is the rich, strong mind, already 
preoccupied by other things, which receives it with them. 
But they, the cares of the world, the deceitful allurements 
of riches, the pleasures of life, and, as Mark says, the pas- 
sionate desires for other things, strangle it, and though it 
struggles along with them, it brings no fruit to perfection. 
Then there are the good and honest minds which, in pro- 
portion to their strength, bring forth fruit, a hundred, sixty, 
or thirty fold. 

10-23. — Teaching in Parables. 

This conversation, see Mark iv. 10, took place privately 
afterwards, and is introduced here parenthetically by the 



MATTHEW XIII. 10-23. 239 

writer as in the proper place for the explanations which it 
gives. After Jesus had withdrawn from the multitudes, and 
the disciples seeing that he had not been understood, asked 
him why he spoke to the multitudes in parables ? " Because," 
he replied, " while to you [whose spiritual perceptions are 
awakened] the hitherto undeclared mysteries of the king- 
dom of heaven are revealed, yet (Mark iv. 11) to them 
who are without," i. e. who are not my disciples, " all things 
are in parables," i. e. are not plain, but veiled and hidden. 
It made no difference, therefore, to them whether he spoke 
in parables or not. They would not in any case understand 
him. But if, in the plainest terms, he should declare the 
truths which were embodied in these parables, they would 
misapprehend entirely the nature of his kingdom, and some 
of them would violently oppose him, while others with equal 
violence, as in John vi. 15, would endeavor to force him to 
become their king. In order to avoid this, and at the same 
time to impart encouragement and instruction to those who in 
lowliness and simplicity of heart were waiting for his king- 
dom, he adopted a method of teaching, which, while it 
taught nothing to those whose views and characters were 
all wrong, gave the needed help to those who were ready to 
receive it. Under this kind of instruction, it was peculiarly 
true, 12, that to him who had, i. e. who had the teachable 
spirit, it was given, i. e. was given to understand the words 
of Christ, and from him who had not this spirit was taken 
away even that which he had, viz. the sort of understand- 
ing which he might have had, if plain instructions had been 
given. Thus it was strictly true that Jesus spoke to them 
in parables, "because they did not," or, as in Mark iv. 12, 
and Luke viii. 10, " in order that they might not," under- 
stand, while they saw and heard him. If they had caught 
the only meaning respecting his kingdom which they were 
capable of receiving from the plainest instructions, it would 
probably have led to violence and the premature close of 
his ministry. The parables were as letters in cipher, intel- 



240 MATTHEW XIII. 24-30. 



ligible to Ms friends, but without meaning to those who did 



not belong to him. 



24-30. — The Tares and the Wheat. 

The parable of the sower speaks of the different results 
produced by the same seed according to the different states 
of mind in those who receive it. This parable of the tares 
and wheat is to illustrate the different effects produced 
by different sorts of seed. If we interpret the parable 
and its explanation, 38, 39, literally, we find that good 
men proceed from seed sown by the Son of Man, and bad 
men from seed sown by the Devil. But the words are 
not to be construed so strictly. As, in the parable of 
the sower, the seed was identified with the man in whom 
it grew up, so here the man is identified with the seed 
which essentially modified his whole nature. Ther tares 
are a bastard sort of wheat, or a mischievous plant, not 
easily distinguished from good wheat in the early stages 
of its growth. Both therefore for a time must be per- 
mitted to grow up together, since the bad cannot be 
rooted up without injury to the good. But when they 
have reached their maturity, and their entirely different 
characters are manifest, a separation is made. The good 
wheat is preserved, the bad consumed. 

The doctrine of the existence of moral evil and the 
delay in its punishment is here compressed into a single 
sentence. The most labored and profound investigations 
of philosophy have not been able to go farther, or to 
throw even a clouded ray of additional light on this dark 
and terrible problem. Those who are interested to know 
how far this problem may be solved without the aid of 
Christianity by a very able, thoughtful, and devout man, 
would do well to read, in Plutarch's Morals, his fine essay 
" Concerning those whom God is slow to punish." Among 
other less weighty considerations which he illustrates with 



MATTHEW XIII. 24-30. 241 

pertinent examples, he says that punishment may be de- 
layed in order to give those who commit great crimes 
an opportunity to do what good they will. The man who 
gains a kingdom by crime may then seek to make up 
for his crime by using his power for good ends, and the 
world would be the loser if he were cut off at once. 
Or the offender's life may be spared, because his own 
conscience, in the apprehensions and terrors which it holds 
over him, may inflict a more dreadful punishment than 
immediate death. Or if the punishment is deferred in 
this world, it is only that it may hereafter be inflicted 
with the greater severity, before its purpose is accom- 
plished, and the man's sin and guilt purged away. Or 
it may be in order to allow an opportunity for amend- 
ment, which is shown by the example of a young man 
who, after a dissolute, dishonest, and cruel course of life, 
being stunned by a fall and while in a swoon seeing as 
in another world how crimes are exposed, the souls of 
the guilty turned inside out, and vengeance wreaked upon 
them, he determined to reform his character, and lived 
afterwards purely and uprightly. Jesus goes far deeper 
than this into the very constitution and nature of things. 
"Without exposure and temptation to evil, we conclude 
from his teachings, there can be no virtue. Bad deeds 
and men cannot be extirpated now except by destroying 
the good with them. Evil does exist. It cannot be rooted 
out without rooting out also the virtues that are growing 
with it, and which often in the early period of their 
growth can hardly be distinguished from it. Nor can 
bad men be destroyed at once without a fatal influence 
on the good. But by and by, when their deeds and 
characters have fully developed themselves, in the con- 
summation to them of this earthly dispensation, that is, 
in the end of the world to each of them, a separation 
shall be made in accordance with the principles of a 
righteous retribution. In these parables Jesus "gathers 
21 






242 MATTHEW XIII. 24-30. 

up ages into one season of seed-time and of harvest." 
So the end of the world, or the day of judgment to each 
individual when his earthly course is ended, is set forth 
by one majestic figure in which all the generations of 
men are brought together to be separated according to 
what they have done, 41, 42, and been, 48 - 50. 

There are nowhere more sublime images of moral grand- 
eur than are placed before us here. Earthly scenes that 
impress themselves most powerfully on the imagination, 
earthly thrones and kingdoms and the mightiest displays 
of human authority shrink away. " The field is the world. 
The harvest is the end of the world. The reapers are 

the angels The Son of man shall send forth 

his angels and he shall gather out of his kingdom all 
those who cause others to sin, and all who work iniquity, 
and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall 
be the wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the 
righteous shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their 
Father." The last sentence would probably come with 
still greater force to the Jews from its bringing to their 
minds a most impressive passage in one of their sublimest 
prophets. " And they that be wise shall shine as the bright- 
ness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to right- 
eousness, as the stars for ever and ever." (Daniel xii. 3.) 
To them at least, language like this used by the sacred 
writers of old, and for generations educating the hearts 
of the people to a deeper solemnity, became, when inter- 
mingled with the speech of Jesus, more impressive than 
words wholly unfamiliar to them could have been. 

We do not like to discuss the duration of future punish- 
ment in the presence of images such as are thrown around 
the condition of the wicked hereafter. Jesus undoubtedly 
intended to represent them as full of misery. But he 
says nothing in this place, if he does anywhere, in re- 
gard to the period of its continuance ; not one word to 
show whether, like tares, the wicked themselves shall be 



MATTHEW XIII. 24-30. 243 

utterly burned up, or whether the penal fires (taken of 
course in a figurative sense) shall only consume and purge 
away their sins, so that at last (as is intimated in 1 Cor. 
xv. 24-28), after we know not how many years or ages, 
they may be restored to life and peace, or whether they 
are left there in endless sin and pain. He places before 
us in the most impressive and terrible language the dread- 
ful character and consequences of sin, that we may be 
warned against it; and it is much w T iser in us, — it shows 
a deeper reverence for him, to use these expressions as 
undefined but awful warnings for ourselves and others, 
than by attempting to lessen or to aggravate their horrors 
by any speculations of ours in regard to the precise method 
of inflicting punishment, or the term of its duration. Why 
can we not learn to respect the reserve of Jesus in re- 
gard to such themes ? 

The field is the world according to our use of the 
word. The harvest is the end of the world, the consum- 
mation of the ceon, age, or dispensation, as applied to the 
Jewish nation and to each individual soul. See Note. 
In this great field of the world we are sowing seed, and 
at the same time are ourselves growing up and ripening 
for the harvest. Whatsoever we sow, that shall we also 
reap. " For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh 
reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall 
of the Spirit reap everlasting life." (Gal. vi. 8.) As in 
the ripened fruit, every shower that fell upon it, every 
hour of sunshine, every night that folded it round with 
darkness, every ingredient in the soil beneath, entered 
into its texture, and helped to make it what it is in the 
time of harvest, so with us, every incident in life, the 
passions we indulge, the actions we perform, the hopes 
we cherish or reject, the privileges we improve or leave 
unimproved, are entering into the texture of our souls, 
and preparing us, or leaving us unprepared, for the harvest. 
Nothing that has entered into our life's experience shall 



244 MATTHEW XIII. 24-30. 

be lost. Our riches and honors, our pleasant homes and 
comfortable situations, except in their influence on the 
soul, shall pass from us. But every kind deed that we 
have done, every pang of contrition, every earnest effort 
in behalf of what is good, every prayer that we have 
uttered from the heart, every longing after holiness, every 
unselfish affection that we have cherished and obeyed, 
every sorrow that has helped to wean us from the world 
or draw us towards God, every pain or disappointment 
patiently or meekly borne, — every one of these, in the 
influences which it is having upon us, shall be gathered 
in, the only treasures we can carry with us, when our harvest, 
which is the end of the world to each one of us, shall 
come. And the harvest must be whenever the Son of 
man shall send forth his reapers, the angels, to gather 
us in. The little child that without one questioning thought 
or fear resigns itself into their hands, though but an open- 
ing bud, is gathered into the harvest, of its Lord. The 
young girl who, through some mysterious sympathy with 
them or some strange monition to the soul, seems to hear 
the sound of their coming from afar, and without appre- 
hension or surprise composes herself for. the solemn change, 
and with encouraging farewells and a perfect trust leaves 
all that she loves on earth, goes already ripe for the 
harvest. The aged servant of Christ who has long been 
waiting for his Master's call, departs from us at last as 
one prepared and ripened for the kingdom of Heaven. 
He has finished his labors ; he has had his trials. He has 
been opposed and maligned, he has been praised and 
honored by man ; but he has done justly, loved mercy, 
and walked humbly with his God. Nothing that he has 
once gained in his religious progress is lost. His principles 
confirmed by a life of scrupulous fidelity ; his mind ex- 
panded and enriched by a conscientious search after truth ; 
his affections chastened and mellowed by disappointments 
and sorrows ; his faith strengthened by every varying ex- 



MATTHEW XIII. 24-30. 245 

perience of life and carried into every department of ac- 
tivity and thought ; — all growing up and ripening here under 
the clouds or sunshine of God's love, are gathered in when 
the revolving years have completed their circuit, and to 
him the end of the world, — the fulfilment and consummation 
of the age, — has come. And the wicked too ! — There is 
no more sublime or beautiful or awful picture than this 
of the world as a field, and the end of the world as 
the harvest, in which for joy or sorrow we all of us shall 
be gathered in. 



The Wicked Oxe. 

But how are we here to interpret " the wicked one," 
" the enemy," " the devil " and " the angels " ? As already 
stated, we are not to press the adjuncts of a parable too 
literally. They are to be considered as the surrounding 
scenery fitted to make an impression on the mind through 
the imagination, and thus prepare it to receive the truth 
which is taught. When Jesus speaks of a merchantman 
finding one pearl of great price, and selling all that he 
has in order to purchase that, we do not suppose that 
he asserts this as a fact which had actually taken place. 
He holds it up as a picture to illustrate an important 
truth ; and this it does equally well, whether he regarded 
it as a veritable fact or as an imaginary incident. Some 
of the parables may have been suggested by passing 
events ; but the particulars he undoubtedly supplied and 
arranged in such a way as might most effectually accom- 
plish his purpose, as a teacher of divine truth. And this 
is the case, whether he draws his illustrations from familiar 
and well-known objects here, as the Sower and his Seed, 
the Good Samaritan, and the Prodigal Son, or from objects 
which lie beyond our personal cognizance, as the devil, the 
angels, &c. For example, in the parable of the Rich Man 
and Lazarus (Luke xvi. 19-31), as in the details be 
21* 



246 MATTHEW XIII. 24-30. 

longing to this world, the crumbs, the dogs, the sores, 
we do not suppose that Jesus speaks of facts which actu- 
ally took place in precisely the manner there represented ; 
so in the details belonging to another world, the being 
carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, the con- 
versation between the rich man and Lazarus, the gulf 
and the flames, we do not suppose that Jesus intended to 
set before us a representation of literal facts which actu- 
ally took place. Are we to give a more strict and literal 
interpretation to the terms which are used here ? 

It is impossible to draw a line which shall distinguish 
precisely between what is literal and what is figurative, 
what is a matter of fact and what is imaginative. The 
two provinces are constantly interpenetrating one another, 
in such a way as to set forth the central truth with the 
greatest distinctness and power. A few considerations, how- 
ever, may help us to a just interpretation. 

In borrowing images from the outward world Jesus 
never, so far as we know, draws them from fabulous 
orders of being. The particular man, tares, wheat, pearl, 
leaven, which he refers to, may be imagined or assumed 
for the occasion ; but they all belong to species which 
have an actual existence, and he never attributes to 
them properties which they do not really possess. There 
is everywhere this rigid conformity to the great essential 
facts of nature. Have we not a right to infer that in 
going beyond this world there will be the same adherence 
to the great essential facts of existence ? As he never 
here draws his illustrations from any species of plant, ani- 
mal, or other being, which does not really exist, will he 
speak to us of orders of beings there who have only a 
fabulous existence ? In going beyond this material world, 
and placing before us agents of whom we cannot judge 
from our personal knowledge, but whom he with his spirit- 
ual powers of vision could recognize, would he be likely 
to speak of beings wholly fabulous and imaginary as if 



MATTHEW XIII. 24-30. 247 

they really existed, or assign to them in their relation 
to us very important offices which they do not hold ? We 
may doubt whether the angels carried Lazarus and placed 
him in Abraham's bosom. These are only incidental illus- 
trations which answer the same purpose, whether they are 
literally true or not. But, in the face of what Jesus says 
there and here, can we doubt that there are such beings 
as angels, and that they, as God's ministers, hold important 
relations to us ? So, when he speaks of the evil one, the 
enemy, the devil, Satan, we may doubt as to the special 
agency assigned to such a being in any particular case; 
but are we at liberty to say that the 'very idea of such 
a personage is drawn from a wholly fabulous and imaginary 
order of beings ? When Jesus speaks, 42, of casting the 
wicked into a furnace of fire, we are not obliged to take 
it as a literal fact. It may be, and probably is, only a 
terrific image borrowed from what is most dreadful in 
this world to describe the intolerable anguish of the guilty 
in the world to come. The illustration, however, is drawn, 
not from a fabulous source, but from something which has 
a substantial basis of reality. Nor can it be shown that 
in a single instance Jesus has in any of his instructions 
assumed the existence of anything which belonged to a 
fabulous class of beings. What right, then, have we to 
suppose that the moment he goes beyond the reach of 
our faculties and the limits of this world, he violates the 
proprieties of truth which he always observes where we 
have the power to judge, and sets before us orders of 
beings which have no existence, as if they really existed, 
and sustained some important relations to us ? 

Another consideration is entitled to some weight ; though 
it ought not to be pressed so far as it is by some of our 
ablest modern commentators. The language here, 19, 39, 
41, is taken, not from the parables, but from the explanation 
which Jesus gave of two of his parables. When, therefore, 
he says, " He who sows the good seed is the Son of 



248 MATTHEW XIII. 24-30. 

man," and "he who sows the tares is the devil/' by what 
principle of interpretation are we justified in accepting one 
clause of the sentence as true, and rejecting the other 
as merely an accommodation to the false ideas and preju- 
dices of the Jews ? His language asserts, as distinctly 
as language can, the existence and agency of an evil 
spirit. It does this while explaining the meaning of a 
parable, in a private and confidential conversation with 
his disciples. 

We must not, however, insist on a literal application 
of his words in all their particulars even here. In verses 
19 and 20, we see in a similar explanation how figurative 
and literal expressions are blended together. The in- 
sufficiency of a language unused to the expression of ab- 
stract ideas required a liberal and constant use of figurative 
terms. Truths relating to the unseen spiritual world must 
be set forth by such images as can be received b) those 
who are addressed. The most exact terms that can be 
used even now to give an idea of spiritual beings and 
agencies are doubtless only such clouded images of divine 
truth as we are able to receive, seeing them, according 
to St. Paul (1 Cor. xiii. 12), not face to face, but " darkly, 
as by the reflection of a mirror." When Jesus says, that 
he will send forth his angels to gather together those 
who have been stumbling-blocks in the way of others and 
those who work iniquity, and cast them into a furnace 
of fire where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth, 
we are to consider these as terms which set before us, 
in language as exact and intelligible as any that could be 
used, the momentous fact of a future retribution. The images 
must, from the nature of the case, be borrowed from what 
is known and experienced in this world. Earthly facts 
and conceptions are made to set forth " darkly " the higher 
facts belonging to our spiritual natures when they shall 
be transferred to a spiritual world. Still, if the angels 
and the devil have no personal existence, or no personal 



MATTHEW XIII. 24-30. 249 

agency in bringing about the results here placed before 
us, is it easy to suppose that Jesus would have used such 
language merely by way of accommodating himself to the 
prejudices and false conceptions of the Jews ? In meeting 
the Greeks who are spoken of in John xii. 20, could he 
have taught them, by conceptions drawn from their my- 
thology, and going necessarily to confirm them in their 
erroneous habits of belief? Could he have spoken to them 
of Centaurs, of Rhadarnanthus, of Jupiter and Pan, as he 
does to the Jews, of Satan and the angels ? 

It is said that the idea of Satan, or, as Dr. Palfrey calls 
it, " the mythology of an evil spirit (answering to the Oriental 
Ahriman)? Lectures on the Jewish Scriptures, Vol. IV. p. 
21, was learned by the Jews from the Chaldreans during their 
seventy years captivity in Babylon. This is possible. The 
word Satan with this signification occurs but two or three 
times in the Old Testament, viz. 1 Chron. xxi. 1, Zech. 
iii. 1, 2, and perhaps in the first and second chapters of 
Job. Before the time of Christ, the doctrine (of which 
hardly a trace is to be found in the Old Testament) per- 
vaded the philosophy and religious conceptions of the Jews. 
But may it not be, that, in the providential training of the 
Jews for the reception of higher religious ideas, the notions 
of diabolical as well as of angelic agencies, which grew up 
round the sublime Theism that became more and more 
the established faith of the nation, may have performed 
an important work in preparing them for the idea of a 
great Christian commonwealth, the kingdom of God, or 
of the heavens ? To them, at the time of our Saviour's 
coming, the invisible realms were peopled with living beings, 
acting as God's agents, or in opposition to his will. The 
contest between good and evil was not confined to this 
visible world of theirs. Through their long and varied 
experience, these ideas were added to the Theism taught 
by Moses, and had become incorporated among their estab- 
lished religious conceptions and convictions. They held 



250 MATTHEW XIII. 24-30. 

no small or unimportant place in their religious culture. 
If they were false, Jesus might have left them, as he 
did most of the prevailing sins and errors without specific 
notice, to vanish away and perish, before the higher con- 
ceptions of truth and duty which he came to reveal. But 
if they were false, and as false pernicious also, could he, 
not merely in his reasoning with the Jews, but in his 
private instructions to his disciples, from the temptation 
in the wilderness to his last solemn conversation with 
them the evening before his crucifixion (Luke xxii. 31, 
John xiv. 30, xvi. 11), have used language which must 
have confirmed them in the belief that those false ideas 
and conceptions were true ? He has left no word which 
condemns or calls them in question. On the other hand, 
they harmonize with all that he has taught us respecting 
the unseen world, and God's methods of action there as 
here through intervening agents. 

It is sometimes suggested, that Jesus may have shared 
the opinions of his age in regard to this subject, and so 
have been mistaken in his views. We know that he 
emphatically disclaimed for himself (Mark xiii. 32) the 
gift of omniscience. But in regard to any doctrine which 
he has taught, we have no disposition to go behind or to 
question his authority. To us his word, clearly announced 
and understood, is evidence and authority enough. Those 
who are interested in this subject are particularly requested 
to read the note to verse 39 of this chapter, and to remem- 
ber that, even though such a being or such beings as a devil 
or devils exist, our popular or even our philosophical notions 
respecting them are not therefore to be assumed as true or 
as reasonable. 



MATTHEW XIII. 



251 



NOTES. 

The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the 

3 sea-side ; and great multitudes were gathered together unto 

him, so that he went into a ship, and sat ; and the whole multi- 

3 tude stood on the shore. And he spake many things unto them 

4 in parables, saying : Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And 
when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way-side ; and the fowls 

5 came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places, 
where they had not much earth ; and forthwith they sprung 

6 up, because they had no deepness of earth ; and when the 
sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no 

7 root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and 

8 the thorns sprung up, and choked them. But other fell into 
good ground ; and brought forth fruit, some an hundred-fold, 

9 some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold. Who hath ears to hear, let 

10 him hear. And the disciples came, and said unto him, 

n Why speakest thou unto them in parables ? He answered and 

said unto them : Because it is given unto you to know the 

mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven ; but to them it is not 

12 given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he 



2. a ship] or rather a boat adapt- 
ed in its form and dimensions to the 
size of the lake, and the purposes 
for which it was used. 
and sat] Avhile the multitude stood. 
" So was the manner of the nation, 
that the masters, when they read 
their lectures, sat, and the scholars 
stood." Lightfoot. 3. Be- 

hold, a sower went forth to 
sow] The litei-al translation is 
more picturesque, and brings the 
whole scene more vividly before us, 
" Behold, the sower went forth to sow. 11 
There is a profound truth conveyed 
under this image of sowing seed. 
The truths which Jesus taught were 
not dead and unproductive; but 
seeds endowed with an inward vi- 
tality, and to be understood and ap- 
preciated only in the living plants 
and luxuriant harvests into which 
they should grow up when received 
into good and honest hearts. It is 
in the soul ripened for the kingdom 



of Heaven, in the church abound- 
ing in Christian virtues and graces, 
in the community where Christian 
ideas and affections are bringing 
forth their pure and peaceable and 
beautiful fruits, that the truths of 
our religion are to be seen. Their 
whole character and influence can 
be recognized only in that world 
where all the harvest matured and 
perfected is gathered in. 

11. mysteries of the kingdom 
of Heaven] the system of Divine 
counsels, doctrines, and ordinances, 
which, as above man's powers of 
discovery, was revealed through 
Jesus Christ. The word mystery, 
" when used in the Neiv Testament 
respecting any doctrine or truth, 
means one which has been secret or 
unknown, but is now revealed. It 
never denotes one which is obscure 
or mysterious, because partially in- 
comprehensible." Norton. 

12. whosoever hath] In propor- 



252 MATTHEW XIII. 

shall have more abundance ; but whosoever hath not, from him 
shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to 13 
them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing 
they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is 14 
fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith: " By hearing ye 
shall hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye shall see, 
and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed gross, 15 
and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have 
closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and 
hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, 
and should be converted, and I should heal them." But blessed 16 
are your eyes, for they see ; and your ears, for they hear. 
For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous 17 
men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have 
not seen them ; and to hear those things which ye hear, and 

have not heard them. Hear ye therefore the parable of the 18 

sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and 19 
understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth . 
away that which was sown in his heart ; this is he which re- 
ceived seed by the way-side. But he that received the seed 20 
into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and 
anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, 21 
but dureth for a while ; for when tribulation or persecution 

tion to a man's spiritual suscepti- Apostles. A great spiritual fact, 
bility and his fidelity will be what like that which is here announced 
he gains from the teachings and in the blinding and hardening effect 
life of Jesus. 14. in them of sin, reaches forward with its pro- 
is fulfilled] " In them is filled phetic warning to all times, and is 
up," or re-fulfilled, " the prophecy fulfilled in the religious experience 
of Isaiah," i. e. what the prophet of all who belong to the class which 
said (Isa. vi. 9, 10) of the blind- it points out. In verses 14 and 15, is 
irig effect, in his day, of disobedi- ascribed to the perverse and unbe- 
ence and practical infidelity, finds lieving Jews, in the language of the 
its fulfilment, and is equally true prophet, the effect of such wicked- 
now. John, xii. 38-40, applies the ness as theirs, which was to dull 
same words on another occasion, their religious sensibilities, " This 
and many years afterwards, Paul people's heart is waxed gross," — to 
(Acts xxviii. 25-27) applied them cloud their spiritual perceptions, — 
with great emphasis to the unbeliev- " their ears are dull of hearing, and 
irig Jews in Rome. In these differ- their eyes they have closed," — so 
ent applications of the same pro- that they could not at any time — 
phetic words as beins: fulfilled in " lest at any time they should " — 
different people, at different times, see and understand their true cnn- 
and under different circumstances, dition, and turn in penitence — "be 
we have an intimation of one of the converted " — to God, and be herded 
ways in which the ancient prophe- by him. 20. stony places] 
cies were applied by Jesus and the Rather, rocky ground, — a little 



MATTHEW XIII. 



253 



«2 arise th because of the word, by and by he is offended. He 
also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the 
•word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, 

23 choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that re- 
ceived seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, 
and understandeth it ; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth 
forth, some an hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty. 

24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying : The kingdom 
of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his 

25 field. But while men slept, his enemy came, and sowed tares 

26 among the wheat ; and went his way. But when the blade 
was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the 

27 tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said 
unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field ? from 

28 whence then hath it tares ? He said unto them, An enemy 
hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then 

29 that we go and gather them up ? But he said, Nay ; lest 
while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with 

30 them. Let both grow together until the harvest ; and in the 
time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together 
first the tares, and bind them in bundles, to burn them ; but 



earth scattered on the large rocks 
which lie beneath. 23. he 

that heareth the word, and 
understandeth it] contrasted with 
him, v. 19, who heareth and under- 
standeth not. 24. The king- 
dom of Heaven] Literally, the 
kingdom of the heavens, as if to de- 
note different spheres of life, one be- 
yond another, and all pervaded by 
the spirit of God. The widely differ- 
ent applications of the term in this 
chapter show how comprehensive 
and how various was the thought 
which Jesus set forth, and how rich 
and full of meaning his language 
was. Having ascertained precisely 
what his words mean in one case, 
we are not therefore at liberty to fix 
on that as their only interpretation 
whenever we may meet them. The 
kingdom of Heaven is here first rep- 
resented,. 24 - 29, 38-43, as a king- 
dom embracing, not those alone who 
continue good, but also those who 
are corrupted by evil influences. It 

22 



is represented, 31, 32, as a plant, 
spreading out its branches, and fur- 
nishing shelter to those who seek it. 
Kext it is represented, 33, as an in- 
fluence, reaching through the man, 
or the world, subduing and assimilat- 
ing aU things to itself. Then it ap- 
pears, 44, as a hidden treasure, to 
set forth its exceeding preciousness, 
as a pearl of great price, to indicate 
at once its costliness and its beauty; 
and finally, 47, 48, as a net drawing 
good and bad alike into its folds, 
out of the sea of time to the shores 
of eternity, that they may there be 
separated' according to what they 
are. 25-40. tares] a 

species of darnel or bastard wheat, 
which, according to St. Jerome, who 
lived in Palestine, was, till the ear 
was formed, so much like the good 
wheat that it could not, without 
much difficulty, be distinguished 
from it. His enemy " sowed [the 
field] over again " \jTre(nr€ipev\ 
with tares, the force of the origi- 



254 



MATTHEW XIII. 



gather the wheat into my barn. Another parable put he 31 

forth unto them saying : The kingdom of Heaven is like to a 
grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. 
Which indeed is the least of all seeds ; but when it is grown, 32 
it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that 
the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. 

Another parable spake he unto them: The kingdom of 33 

Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in 

three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. All 34 

these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables, and 
without a parable spake he not unto them ; that it might be 35 
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: "I will 
open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have 
been kept secret from the foundation of the world." 

Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the 36 
house. And his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto 
us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said 37 
unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man ; 
the field is the world ; the good seed are the children of 38 
the kingdom ; but the tares are the children of the wicked 



nal word is impaired in our ver- 
sion. The man, v. 24, sowed; his 
enemy sowed over again, or upon 
what 'had already been sown. 

32. so that the birds 
of the air come aud lodge in 
its branches] Hackett, "Illus- 
trations of Scripture," p. 124, speaks 
of this plant, which he found in 
blossom, full grown, in some cases 
six, seven, and nine feet high. " But 
still," he says, " the branches or 
stems of the branches were riot very 
large, or, apparently, very strong. 
' Can the birds,' I said to myself, 
' rest upon them ? ' .....' At 

that very instant one of the 

fowls of heaven stopped in its flight 
through the air, alighted down on 
one of the branches, which hardly 
moved beneath the shock, and then 
began, perched there before my 
eyes, to warble forth a strain of the 
richest music." The mustard-seed 
and the plant growing from it illus- 
trate the self-developing power by 
which the religion of Jesus, from 



the smallest beginnings, spreads out 
its branches for those who might 
seek a shelter within them. 
33. leaven] The leaven shows its 
power of imparting its own proper- 
ties to those who receive it, and 
assimilating them till they partake 
of its own nature. " Another strik- 
ing point of comparison," says Al- 
ford, " is the fact that leaven, as 
used ordinarily, is a piece of the 
leavened loaf put amongst the 
dough, just as the kingdom of 
heaven is the renewal of humanity 
by the righteous Man Christ Jesus." 
38. the field is the 
world] Koo-fjLOs, the world, this out- 
ward universe or world, according to 
our use of the word. But in the next 
verse, in the clause the har- 

vest is the end of the world] 
entirely a different word is used. 
There it is alcov or ceon, — an age 
or dispensation, — referring, not to 
the outward universe, but in this 
case including our earthly discipline 
and experience. The harvest is the 



MATTHEW XIII. 



255 



39 one ; the enemy that sowed them is the devil ; the harvest is 

40 the end of the world ; and the reapers are the angels. As, 



consummation of the ceon, the age, 
or dispensation in which we now 
live, and our consequent entrance 
on another, and (with the faithful) 
higher age or dispensation. Alcov, 
as applied to the Jews, includes 
everything relating to their condi- 
tion and experience under the Mo- 
saic dispensation, and the consum- 
mation of the ceon, — the end of the 
world, — to them was the overthrow 
of the Jewish polity at the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem in the year 70, 
and the consequent advent of a new 
ceon, — the coming of the Son of 
man, — in the establishment of the 
Christian religion, which was the 
fulfilment or consummation of the 
Jewish dispensation. But in its 
wiiler application, as in the passage 
before us, ceon refers to our whole 
earthly dispensation and experience, 
and includes everything that may 
act upon us in this life. The con- 
summation of the ceon, or end of the 
world, means the consummation of 
our earthly life, whether for good or 
for evil. But on leaving this ceon, 
we enter into another, and the ad- 
jective, aicovtos, or ceonian, which 
is translated eternal and everlasting 
(Matt. xxv. 46), is borrowed from 
this next ceon, and is applied to 
qualities and conditions, which, 
whether for weal or woe, shall be- 
long to us in that more advanced 
stage of our existence. ^Eternal 
life " is the blessedness which be- 
longs to that condition of our being, 
and which, in its elementary prin- 
ciples, as Jesus has said (John vi. 
47), may begin within us now; and 
eternal (not everlasting, for the 
idea of time is not included in the 
word), — " eternal punishment " is 
the sorrow and anguish which shall 
belong to those Avho enter unpre- 
pared into that more advanced ceon 
or stage of existence, and which, in 
its elementary principles, may begin 
within us now. See p. 229. 39. the 
enemy that sowed them is the 
devil] We must be careful not to 
press this matter too far. The ex- 



istence of evil spirits, and especially 
of one pre-eminent among them as 
the wicked one, the devil, or Satan, is 
not to be held to by us as among the 
facts which Jesus has unquestion- 
ably taught. Our view of the sub- 
ject has been stated in Chapters IV. 
and VIII. We have no doubt that 
the Evangelists believed in such ex- 
istences and agencies. From a 
careful study of the language of 
Jesus, we incline to think that he 
also believed in them. But a close 
and critical examination of all that 
he has said on the subject has satis- 
fied us, 1. That he did not directly 
teach the existence and agency 
of such beings; and, 2. That in 
almost every case where he speaks 
of the devil or Satan, his words are 
certainly to be taken in a figurative 
sense. The word Satan is used six- 
teen times in the Gospels ; but, ex- 
cept in the passages given below, 
viz. 1, 4, and 7, where it is used as 
synonymous with devil, it occurs 
onlv on five different occasions. 
1. Matt. xii. 26: "If Satan cast 
out Satan," where Jesus is arguing 
with the Jews from their own point 
of view. 2. Matt. xvi. 23 : « Get 
thee behind me, Satan," words ad- 
dressed to Peter. 3. Luke x. 18: "I 
beheld Satan as lightning fall from 
heaven," language evidently figura- 
tive. 4. Luke xiii. 16: " Whom 
Satan hath bound, lo ! these eighteen 
years," language personifying the 
cause of disease as Satan. 5. Luke 
xxii. 31: " Behold, Satan hath 
sought for you, that he may sift 
you as wheat." The principles of 
spiritual evil may be personified 
here as that of physical evil in the 
previous passage. In every one of 
these cases the expression may be 
construed as a striking and natural 
figure of speech without necessarily 
implying the personal existence of 
an evil spirit. The word devil, 
Sta/3oXos, not demon, occurs in the 
Gospels on seven different occasions : 
1. In the account of the Tempta- 
tion. 2. Matt. xiii. 39 : " The ene- 






256 



MATTHEW XIII. 



therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so 
shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall 41 



my that sowed them is the devil." 
3. Matt. xxv. 41 : " Into everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and his 
angels." 4. Luke viii. 12 : " Then 
cometh the devil and taketh away 
the word out of their hearts," par- 
allel to Matt. xiii. 19, where the ex- 
pression " the wicked one " is used, 
and to Mark iv. 15, where the word 
" Satan" is used. 5. John vi. 70: 
" Have not I chosen you twelve, and 
one of you is a devil? " 6. John 
viii. 44 : " Ye are of your father, the 
devil." 7. John xiii. 2: " The devil 
having put it into the heart of Judas 
Iscariot to betray him." In verse 
27 of the same "chapter, it reads, 
" And after the sop, Satan entered 
into him." 

The first and seventh of these 
instances may be set aside as the 
language of the Evangelists, and not 
of Jesus. The seventh may be in- 
terpreted figuratively ; and as to the 
first, we refer to our comments on 
the account of the Temptation in 
Chapter IV. 

The fifth case, " Have I not 
chosen you twelve, and one of you 
is a devil? " is certainly figurative, 
and gives a decisive intimation of 
the way in which the w r ord may 
have been used by Jes,us. It is prob- 
able that this expression refer- 
ring to Judas may have led to the 
use of the same term by St. John, 
when speaking of Judas in the sev- 
enth instance. 

The sixth case is as follows : " Ye 
are of your father, the devil, and the 
lusts of your father ye wish to do. 
He was a murderer from the begin- 
ning, and stood not in the truth; 
because there is no truth in him. 
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh 
of his own ; for he is a liar, and the 
father of it." The natural and ob- 
vious interpretation, at first sight, 
of this rather extended description 
of the devil, would be a literal one 
applying to a personal being actu- 
ally existing and answering to this 
character ; but on a closer inspec- 
tion of the passage, we see that the 
word father cannot be used in a 



literal, but only in a spiritual sense; 
and does not this almost require, in 
order to the harmony and complete- 
ness of the meaning, that the rest 
of the passage should likewise be 
taken, not in its literal, but in its 
spiritual sense ? Is not the extended 
description given to show in what 
sense Jesus used the word, devil, 
viz. as the impersonation of wicked- 
ness ? — Ye are of your father the 
devil, that spirit of wickedness, 
which prompted to the first mur- 
der, which is the very essence and 
parent of what is false ; and on ac- 
count of your affinity with it, ye 
believe me not, because I tell you 
the truth. As he had a little while 
before referred to Judas as a devil 
(John vi. 70), because of his wick- 
edness, so he may here call the Jews 
the children of the devil, because of 
their affinity with what is evil. As 
in the one case, the word devil as 
the personification of wickedness is 
applied to a bad man, why may it 
not in the other case be used in the 
same way as the personification of 
evil, especially of murder and false- 
hood, to describe the spirit and tem- 
per of the Jews who were seeking 
his life and refusing to receive the 
truth? Does not this better adapt 
itself to the inward and profound 
thought of Jesus, than the interpre- 
tation which requires him here to 
speak literally of a personal devil 
in his direct and personal relation to 
them ? Even if Jesus had believed 
in such a being, would not this figu- 
rative and spiritual application of 
the term be more natural and more 
in accordance with his usual mode 
of speech? 

In the fourth case, " Then cometh 
the devil, and taketh the word out 
of their hearts," or, as it is in Matt, 
xiii. 19 : " Then cometh the wicked 
one and catcheth away that which 
is sown in his heart," the whole 
sentence is figurative, and this word. 
is plainly used to personify the evil 
influences which remove from shal- 
low minds the truths which they 
gladly receive in a moment of re- 



MATTHEW XIII. 



257 



send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom 

42 all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall 
cast them into a furnace of fire ; there shall be wailing and 

43 gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth, as 
the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to 

44 hear, let him hear. Again the kingdom of Heaven is like 

unto treasure hid in a field, the which, when a man hath found, 
he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he 

45 hath, and buyeth that field. Again the kingdom of Heav- 

46 en is like unto a merchant-man, seeking goodly pearls ; who, 



ligious excitement, but which they 
do not understand. 

There remain now only two pas- 
sages to be considered. One is the 
awful declaration, " Depart from 
me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and 
his angels." The other is the pas- 
sage before us, " The enemy that 
sowed them is the devil." It may 
be, that Jesus meant nothing more 
in either case than the impersonation 
of evil. The accompanying lan- 
guage in both instances is intensely 
figurative. It is difficult to distin- 
guish .between the main point of his 
instructions and the images under 
which it was conveyed. But the 
presumption to our mind is, that in 
using language such as this, he 
does imply the actual, personal ex- 
istence of such beings as are sug- 
gested by the words, " the devil and 
his angels." He has never directly 
taught the existence of such beings. 
Every passage in which they are 
spoken of may be interpreted figur- 
atively, without any violent wrench 
to the language. Still, the impres- 
sion left upon us is that Jesus did 
believe in a vast background of evil 
beyond what we can see, — an em- 
pire of darkness where evil spirits 
live, from which evil influences 
have been permitted to enter, even 
into this world, and whose power he 
came to overthrow. The result of 
this whole investigation, which we 
have carefully gone through many 
times, as a matter of Scriptural 
interpretation, has been to leave us 
very decidedly with the impression 
that Jesus did believe in evil spirits, 
22* 



and the disastrous influence which 
they might exercise over men who 
allowed themselves to be acted 
upon by them. But we find very 
little evidence that he believed in 
Satan or the devil as a real, per- 
sonal being, who ruled over the 
realm of evil spirits, as a king over 
his subjects. It does not seem 
entirely certain to us ; but we think 
the most natural and satisfactory 
explanation of his language, on 
the principles of a just and exact 
interpretation, is to be found in 
the supposition that he alluded to 
Satan or the devil as the personifica- 
tion of wickedness, and in that sense 
called him the Prince of Devils, and 
spoke of him and his angels, as he 
called him the father of the mur- 
derous and lying Jews, and spoke of 
him as the prince of this world. 
(John xii. 31, xiv. 30, xvi. 11.) 
Evil spirits were his angels and 
subjects, just as wicked men were 
his children, in a figurative, and not 
a literal sense. 44. treas- 

ure hid in a field] The king- 
dom of Heaven, i. e. the religion of 
Jesus, is like a hidden treasure, 
which a man, while employed on 
other things, discovers, and with 
joy secures for himself. His hid- 
ing it, while he went to purchase 
the field, is one of the adjuncts, 
which, though indicating the great 
value of what had been found, is 
not to be construed as having any 
direct bearing on the main object 
of the parable. 45, 46. As a 

contrast to the man who happened 
to find the treasure is the merchant- 
man who, while seeking for beauti- 



258 MATTHEW XIII. 

when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all 

that he had, and bought it. Again the kingdom of Heaven 47 

is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of 
every kind ; which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and 48 
sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad 
away. So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels 49 
shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, 
and shall cast them into the furnace of fire ; there shall be so 

wailing and gnashing of teeth. Jesus saith unto them, si 

Have ye understood all these things ? They say unto him, 
Yea, Lord. Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe, 52 
which is instructed unto the kingdom of Heaven, is like unto a 
man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his 

treasure things new and old. And it came to pass, that, 53 

when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence. 

And when he was come into his own country, he taught 54 
them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, 
and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty 
works ? Is not this the carpenter's son ? Is not his mother 55 
called Mary ? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, 

ml pearls, found one very costly, ing that they were not in a state of 

and went and sold all that he had mind to be benefited by it, refused 

in order to purchase it. to perform (Luke iv. 24-27) many 

52. Therefore] For this reason, miracles among them. Their un- 

i. e. taking into account the new belief, 58, does not refer so much to 

truths and hopes and life which the fact that they did not, as that 

have been here set forth, every they would not, believe. It indi- 

Scribe, who is instructed in my cates a spirit of unbelief which set 

religion, being already learned in itself against him, and would not 

the law, is like a householder who be convinced by anything that he 

brings out from his treasury things might do. " Is not this," they asked 

both new and old. It was cus- contemptuously, "the carpenter's 

tomary in the East to preserve in son '? Is not his mother called 

houses costly garments and other Mary ? and his brethren, James, and 

articles for many generations ; and Joses, and Simon, and Judas ? And 

this perhaps is what more particu- his sisters, are they not all with us ?" 

larly suggested the comparison. 55. and his brethren] 

53-58. He went into his own Who were the brethren of Jesus? 

countiy, i. e. to Nazareth. For a ful- This has been, among comraen- 

ler account of what occurred there, tators, one of the difficult questions, 

see Luke iv. 16 - 24. Though and the ablest among them have 

Jesus had astonished them by his given different answers. The breth- 

wisdora and his mighty works, still ren of Jesus are spoken of on six 

they found a stumbling-block to different occasions, viz. Matt. xii. 

their belief in the fact, that his 46, and parallel passages in Mark 

father, the carpenter, and his breth- and Luke ; the present passage and 

ren or kinsmen, were known to its parallel, Mark vi. 3; John ii. 12; 

them as ordinary men. Jesus, see- vii. 3, 5, 10; Acts i. 14; 1 Cor. ix. 5. 



MATTHEW XIII. 



259 



56 and Judas ? and his sisters, are they not all with us ? whence 

57 then hath this man all these things ? And they were offended 
in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without 

5S honor, save in his own country, and in his own house. And he 
did not many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. 



Mr. Norton, in his note on this pas- 
-upposes that " the brethren" 
or "kinsmen" of Jesus, — for the 
original allows either intei-preta- 
tion, — were the sons of Alpheus 
(the same name in Hebrew as Clopas 
or Cleopas), whose wife Mary is 
sai<l (John xix. 25) to be the sister 
or kinswoman of Mary the Mother 
of Jesus. In Matt, xxvii. 56, Mark 
xv. 40, she is said to be the mother 
of James and Joses, i. e. Joseph. 
Luke, in his catalogue of the Apos- 
tles (Luke vi. 16: Acts i. 13), men- 
tions Judas of James, i. e. the son 
or brother of James. Thus we 
have applied to the sons either of 
Alpheus, or of his wife Mary, three 
of the names, which are here ap- 

5 lied to the brethren of Jesus, viz. 
ames and Joses and Judas. Would 
these three names be likely to be 
repeated in two different branches 
of the same family? Is it not more 
reasonable to suppose that these 
brethren of Jesus, as they are called, 
were the sons of Alpheus (Cleopas) 
and Mary, of whom at least two, 
James and Judas, and possibly, as 
Mr. Norton supposes, a third, Simon, 
were among the Apostles ? The re- 



ply is: 1. That the names were 
among the most common Jewish 
names, and might be repeated in 
two different branches of the same 
family. "We are acquainted with 
three'different branches of a family 
in each of which may be found the 
names William, James, and John. 2. 
The brethren of Jesus spoken of in 
John vii. 5, following John ii. 12 ; vii. 
3, did not at that time beheve on him, 
and therefore they could not have 
been among the Apostles. 3. Where- 
ever they are mentioned in the New 
Testament, except in the seventh 
chapter of John, and 1 Cor. ix. 5, 
they are mentioned in connection 
with Mary, the Mother of Jesus. 
For these reasons, we suppose that 
the brethren of Jesus Avere the sons 
of Joseph, though they may not have 
been the sons of Mary. James, the 
son of Alpheus, Avas' probably the 
James whom St. Paul speaks of 
(Gal. i. 19) as "the brother of the 
Loi'd." Nor is it improbable that 
James and Judas, sons of Alpheus, 
are " the brethren of the Lord," 
whom he refers to, 1 Cor. ix. 5, as 
among the Apostles. 



2 GO MATTHEW XIV. 1 - 12. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Herod Antipas. 

1-12. Of Herod Antipas some account lias already been 
given in chap. xi. Contemporary records, to those who care 
to enter into such horrible details, furnish examples enough to 
show that the beheading of John, with the revolting circum- 
stances attending it, was no extraordinary instance of cruelty 
in those times. Lardner, Part I. Bk. I. Chap. I. Herod seems 
to have been a weak and crafty, — for the two qualities 
often go together, — rather than an able and cruel man, as 
his father, Herod the Great, whom we find in the second 
chapter of Matthew, had been. When he was on a visit 
to his half-brother, Philip, a private citizen, and not to be 
confounded with Philip, the Tetrach of Iturasa and Tracho- 
nitis, mentioned in Luke iii. 1, he became enamored of his 
brother's wife, Herodias, whom he persuaded to leave her 
husband, and to marry him. This act was a violation of the 
Jewish law, and called down on Herod a severe rebuke 
from the stern preacher in the wilderness, who thus 
incurred her lasting displeasure. She was a bold, bad, 
unscrupulous woman. " Josephus," says Dr. Lardner, " has 
represented Herodias as a woman full of ambition and envy, 
as having a mighty influence on Herod, and able to 
persuade him to things he was not of himself at all inclined 
to." It is therefore entirely in character with all that we 
know of her, that in her anger against John, she should, as 
we read (Mark vi. 19), seek to destroy him, and that she 
should have recourse to indirect means for revenging her- 
self, when she had failed in other ways to accomplish her 
purpose. It was undoubtedly by her direction, that her 



MATTHEW XIV. 1 - 12. 261 

daughter Salome, at a feast on the birthday of Herod, when 
he was probably heated with wine, won his favor by dancing 
before him, and gained from him a promise, given with an 
oath, that he would grant any favor that she might ask of him, 
even (Mark vi. 23) to the half of his kingdom. She went 
to her mother, and being instructed by her, came back 
immediately with earnest haste, and said, " I desire that thou 
give me forthwith on a dish the head of John the Baptist." 
This extreme haste probably arose from a fear lest the king, 
after the excitement of the hour was over, should relent, 
or refuse to grant her request. See Robinson's Calmet, art. 
Antipas. The evident reluctance of Herod, even then, to 
comply with her demand confirms this view of the case. 
An executioner was sent immediately, and the head of John 
was brought to the girl, who carried it to her mother. 
John, as we have seen in chapter xi. was imprisoned near 
the Dead Sea. The narrative of the Evangelists, partic- 
ularly that of Mark, indicates that he was not far off from 
the festive party, who must therefore have been in that part 
of Herod's dominions which Avas most distant from Galilee. 

Herod had thus beheaded John from a false sentiment of 
honor, and grievously against his will, for he feared him, 
(Mark vi. 20,) " knowing that he was a righteous and holy 
man ; " and, though he desired to put him to death, he feared 
the people, for they accounted John as a prophet. The 
circumstances attendant on the life of John, his uncompro- 
mising attitude as a prophet of God, the reverence in which 
he was held, and the strange ascendency which such men 
sometimes gain over the imagination of the worldly minded 
and corrupt, may have wrought with peculiar force on 
Herod, and roused his superstitious apprehensions. So that 
when he heard of Jesus and his extraordinary acts, and the 
sensation that he was producing in his dominions, he may 
have been (Luke ix. 7) sorely perplexed, and have broken 
out in the words which were spoken, half in rage and half 
in fear, " John have I beheaded ; but who is this ? " And 



2G2 MATTHEW XIV. 1-12. 

in order to allay his apprehensions, to satisfy himself 
whether the reports that he heard were true, and also, as 
we might infer from the words and conduct of Jesus (Luke 
xiii. 31, 32), to get him into his power, he sought to see 
him. At another time his words, as in the passage before 
us, took a different turn ; and, as Mr. Norton in his note on 
Matt. xiv. 1-12, suggests, may be regarded as the excited, 
figurative language of an angry man ; as if he had said : 
" John have I beheaded. But what have I gained by it ? 
Here we have him, the same thing over again, raised from 
the dead, and therefore showing forth these powerful works." 
Herod, it has been said, was a Sadducee, and as such 
(Matt. xxii. 23, Acts xxiii. 8) believed in "no resurrec- 
tion, neither angel nor spirit." We find no evidence that he 
was a Sadducee. But even if he were so, it would not 
have secured him from all dread of the supernatural, under 
the circumstances in which he was placed. The annals of 
superstition are marked by no greater absurdities than 
those which are drawn from the most unbelieving times. 
Nor have any men, when under the pressure of extraordi- 
nary circumstances of emotion, shown themselves more the 
victims of an unreasonable credulity than those who have 
prided themselves most on their philosophical unbelief. 
Herod, more than half a Jew, with the superstitious ideas 
of his nation hanging over his mind, driven by the more 
powerful will of a woman into crimes at which his own 
nature revolted, on hearing from all quarters accounts of 
sick men healed, demoniacs exorcised, and the dead raised 
to life, may, in spite of his hardness and unbelief, have been 
so disturbed and conscience-smitten as in amazement and 
terror, to utter the language attributed to him in. the Gospels. 
In Shakespeare's Macbeth we have, drawn by a master's 
hand, the inconsistencies, absurdities, and horrors which 
mark the speech and conduct of a man, betrayed like Herod 
into crimes which he could never have committed unless im- 
pelled by the overpowering ambition of an artful, merciless, 



MATTHEW XIV. 1 - 12. 263 

unscrupulous woman. The perplexities which oppressed 
the mind of Herod, and drew from him the exclamation, 
" It is John whom I beheaded ; he has been raised from the 
dead, and by him these mighty works are wrought," may 
have been not unlike those which wrenched from the terri- 
fied Macbeth at the appearance of Banquo whom he had 
murdered : — the words, — 

" The times have been, 

That, when the brains were out, the man would die, 

And there an end: but now, they rise again, 

With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, 

And push us from our stools." 

The great misdeeds and consequent misfortunes of Herod's 
life, his repudiating of his wife, the daughter of Aretas, 
king of Petrsea, and his disastrous defeat by that monarch, 
his murder of John the Baptist, his attempt to supplant the 
influence of his wife's brother Herod Agrippa with the 
Roman emperor, Caligula, and to secure for himself the title 
of king, and his consequent banishment, first to Gaul, A. D. 
39, and thence to Spain where he died, were caused by the 
instigations of the jealous, unprincipled, ambitious woman, 
with whom he was united by an adulterous and incestuous 
marriage. 

Herod is referred to again on two occasions. The Phari- 
sees (Luke xiii. 31, 32) tell Jesus to depart; for Herod is 
seeking his life. The reply of Jesus, " Go ye and tell that 
fox," &c. shows how well he understood his crafty charac- 
ter. He appears again in the trial of Jesus. He was 
(Luke xxiii. 8) exceedingly glad to see him, for he had long 
desired it on account of the reports which he had heard of 
him, and, besides, he now hoped to see him perform some 
miracle. But when Jesus not only refused to do anything 
to gratify his curiosity, but would not even reply to his 
wordy questions, he gave way to the natural and cruel 
levity of his character, and, by the most extravagant marks 
of homage, subjected him to the heartless mockery and scoffs 






264 MATTHEW XIV. 13-21. 

of the soldiers. The Herod who appears in the thirteenth 
chapter of Acts is Herod Agrippa I., grandson of Herod 
the Great, and brother of Herodias. 



13-21. — Feeding the Five Thousand. 

After Jesus knew that Herod was making inquiries con- 
cerning him, 13, as connected with 1 and 2, he crossed over 
the lake with his disciples to an uninhabited place, near the 
city of Bethsaida, which was at the northeastern corner 
of the lake, not far from the entrance of the Jordan. They 
sought rest; "for there were many coming and going, and 
they had not leisure even to eat." (Mark vi. 31.) Jesus 
probably desired also to have a season of undisturbed inter- 
course with his disciples. For this purpose he went up 
into a mountain with them. But the people soon saw which 
way he had gone. They ran together round the lake, and 
some of them reached the spot even before Jesus had come 
to the shore. He could not therefore long be left with his 
disciples. They were nocking towards him from all the 
neighboring villages. And when, on the mountain where 
he was sitting with his disciples, he lifted up his eyes, he 
saw an immense multitude coming towards him. He can 
out to meet them, and, being moved with compassion ft 
them, he healed their sick, and taught them many thing 
But seeing that in their haste they had come without the 
customary supply of food, he asks Philip (John vi. 5) ho 
they are to be fed. Philip probably conferred with tl 
other disciples, and they advise Jesus to send the multituc 
away, that they may purchase bread in the neighborir 
fields and villages. " They need not go away," said Jesu 
" Give ye them to eat." " But we have nothing here," si 
they, " except five loaves and two small fishes." Ai 
these, according to John vi. 9, belonged to a lad who w, 
with them. Jesus directed the multitudes to be seatt 
on the green grass of which there was much there, 



MATTHEW XIV. 13-21. 265 

companies, by hundreds and fifties. They sat down as 
it were in garden plots, each company making a square 
by itself. Jesus, having lifted up his eyes to heaven and 
blessed the food, caused it to be distributed among the 
people, and they all, five thousand men, besides women 
and children, ate as much as they desired, and twelve 
baskets of fragments remained. 

In the different accounts here, we have the characteris- 
tics of the different Evangelists. In Matthew there is the 
plain statement of facts, with his peculiar exactness as to 
numbers, he being the only one who adds to the 5,000, 
" besides women and children." Luke's is a clear his- 
torical account. He mentions the name of the place, Beth- 
saida. There were two cities of this name, one on the west 
side, and the other where they now were, near the north- 
eastern corner of the lake. Mark, on the other hand, 
throws in those graphic details, which indicate an eye- 
witness. " For there were many coming and going, and 
they had not leisure even to eat." He speaks of many 
finding out whither Jesus had gone, and "running to- 
gether on foot," so that they reached the place before 
him. He speaks of the green grass, and of the appear- 
ance — like garden plots — of the separate groups, as the 
multitude reclined at their meal. John's account also has 
the marks of an eyewitness. He alone speaks of Jesus as 
going up into a mountain and sitting there with his dis- 
ciples, of his lifting up his eyes and seeing the great 
multitude coming towards him, of the conversation with 
Philip, of the lad with his five barley loaves, and two little 
fishes." These graphic details and the parenthetical clause 
— " now there was much grass in the place " — are charac- 
teristic of one who was personally present. 22, 23. After 
the miracle Jesus constrained his disciples to enter a vessel, 
and go back to the other side before him. The language 
indicates a reluctance to go on their part. Probably they 
had become aware of the disposition in the multitude 

23 



2G6 MATTHEW XIV. 21-34. 

(John vi. 14, 15) to take him by force and make him a 
king, and, sympathizing with the movement, were unwilling 
to go away. For this very reason, in order to prevent 
their becoming implicated in any such movement, Jesus 
may have obliged them to enter the vessel. Then, having 
dismissed the multitudes, he went up into the mountain 
alone to pray. When the night came on he was there, 
apart from the confused excitement of the crowds and 
their ambitious schemes in his behalf, the silent heavens 
bending over him, and the mountain solitudes around. 
These retired seasons of meditation and prayer were pecu- 
liarly grateful to him. " It seems to me that no one can 
remember how the Holy One found strength and peace 
in prayer, and ever again doubt that we need it. Judas 
did not pray. Herod did not feel the need of it. Pilate 
felt no need of it. The worldly and the cruel did not 
pray. But the Holy One, alone on the mountain, by the 
grave of Lazarus, at his own last hour, felt the need 
of prayer; and so long as the record of that example 
remains, we have an unanswerable evidence of the neces- 
sity of prayer." — E. Peabody, D. D. 

Jesus avalking on the Water. 

21 - 34. While Jesus was alone on the mountain, in the 
gray twilight of the dawn, as it broke faintly into the dark- 
ness of the night, Jesus saw the disciples tossed about by 
the waves, and struggling with their oars to make some 
headway against the opposing wind. At about the fourth 
watch of the night, which extended from three to six 
o'clock, he went towards them, walking on the water. 
As they saw him approaching, they screamed aloud with 
fear, thinking it a spirit, or an apparition. A word from 
him calmed their apprehensions. Peter with the vehe- 
mence and the sudden revulsion of feeling which he showed 
on other occasions more than once, asked that he might 



MATTHEW XIV. 2G7 

walk to him on the waters, and then, in the violence of 
the wind his courage failing him, and he beginning to sink, 
he cried to Jesus for help. When they had come into the 
vessel, the wind ceased. This miracle evidently produced 
on those who were there (Mark vi. 51, 52) a stronger im- 
pression of amazement and wonder, than that which they had 
witnessed the day before Avith unmoved and hardened hearts. 
Their sense of personal danger from the storm, the terrors 
of the night heightened by what they feared at the time as 
a phantasm or apparition from another world, had prepared 
them to recognize with gratitude and wonder the power which 
interposed to save them. They immediately came to the 
land of Gennesaret, a rich and beautiful plain on the west 
side of the lake, lying four or five miles north from Tiberias, 
and probably a little to the south from Capernaum. 



NOTES. 



At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, 

2 and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist ; he is 
risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do show forth 

3 themselves in him. — <— For Herod had laid hold on John, and 
bound him, and put him in prison, for Herodias' sake, his 

4 brother Philip's wife. For John said unto him, It is not law- 

5 ful for thee to have her. And when he would have put him to 
death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a 

6 prophet. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of 

7 Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod ; whereupon 
he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would 

8 ask. And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, 

9 Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger. And the king 
was sorry ; nevertheless, for the oath's sake, and them which 

10 sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. And 
li he sent and beheaded John in the prison. And his head 

10. and beheaded John in likely to be correct in this master 
prison ] Josephus, who is less than Matthew, assigns a different 






268 



MATTHEW XIV. 



was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel; and she 
brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took up 12 

the body, and buried it ; and went and told Jesus. When 13 

Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place 



reason for the death of John from 
that which is here given. His ac- 
count of John is as follows (Ant. 
XVlli. 5. 2) : " Now some of the 
Jews thought that the destruction 
of Herod's army came from God ; 
and that very justly, as a punish- 
ment of what he did against John, 
who was called the Baptist. For 
Herod slew him, who was a good 
man, and commanded the Jews to 
exercise virtue, both as to righteous- 
ness towards one another, and piety 
towards God, and so to come to 
baptism. For that the washing 
with water would be acceptable to 
him, if they made use of it, not in 
order to putting away, or the re- 
mission of some sins" only, but for 
the purification of the body: sup- 
posing still that the soul was thor- 
oughly purified beforehand by right- 
eousness. Now when many others 
came in crowds about him — for they 
were greatly moved or pleased by 
hearing his words — Hex-od, who fear- 
ed lest the great influence John had 
over the people might put it into his 
power and inclination to raise a re- 
bellion (for they seemed ready to 
do anything he should advise), 
thought it best, by putting him to 
death, to prevent " any mischief he 
might cause, and not bring himself 
into difficulties by sparing a man 
who might make him repent of it 
when it should be too late. Ac- 
cordingly he was sent a prisoner, out 
of Herod's suspicious temper, to 
Machserus, the castle I before men- 
tioned, and was there put to death." 
13. When Jesus heard of 
it, he departed thence by ship 
into a desert place ] " The 
news of John's execution," says 
Mr. Norton, " probably produced a 
sudden excitement among the peo- 
ple, and a feeling of strong resent- 
ment, — for ' all believed John to 
be a prophet,' — and might power- 
fully tend to turn their attention 



on Jesus, and direct their hopes to 
him as their expected king. John's 
disciples came to tell him of it, his 
own Apostles collected about him, 
and the multitude flocked to him. 
From this excited multitude, eager 
to force on him an office so foreign 
from that which he was appointed 
to sustain, our Lord was desirous of 
withdrawing himself, till their pas- 
sions sbould subside, and he should, 
in consequence, be able with less 
difficulty to repress their misdirect- 
ed zeal." He probably wished also 
to withdraw his disciples, who were 
very likely to share in the popular 
ferment. He therefore passed over 
from Galilee to the other side of the 
lake, into the dominions of Philip, 
a part of the country where he ap- 
pears to have spent but little time 
during his ministry. Here, how- 
ever, a great number of persons 
scon collected, whom he fed mirac- 
ulously. The performance of this 
miracle, with its effect on the mul- 
titude, which our Lord must have 
foreseen, may seem inconsistent 
with the reasons that have just 
been assigned for his leaving Gali- 
lee. But it is to be observed, that, 
while he repressed those feelings of 
the multitude which arose trom 
false expectations concerning the 
Messiah, it was necessary for him, 
at the same time, to give the most 
decisive proofs of his Divine au- 
thority. As he but seldom visited 
this part of the country, we may 
suppose that it was his purpose to 
perform a miracle so astonishing 
and so public that it would make 
a deep impression, and that the 
knowledge of it would be spread 
everywhere round about. Under 
this aspect the miracle resembles 
that of the cure of the demoniacs, 
related in the eighth chapter of Mat- 
thew, which was so remarkable in 
its circumstances, and which was 
likewise performed on the eastern 



MATTHEW XIV 



269 



apart ; and when the people had heard thereof, they followed 

him on foot out of the cities. 
14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude ; and was 

moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. 
15 And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, say- 



shove of the lake." In the work of 
educating the disciples as Apostles 
and Evangelists, while it was im- 
portant that they should at times be 
sent out by themselves, and at times 
be brought into connection with 
large and excited multitudes of 
men, it was also important that 
they should sometimes be alone 
with Jesus to receive his private 
and confidential admonitions and 
instructions, as well as to have the 
spirit and habit of devotion estab- 
lished in them. We must still re- 
gard them as a peripatetic school, 
going about with their master, and 
preparing under him for the great 
and responsible office which is soon 
to devolve on them. 14. 

And Jesus went forth] He had 
probably been with his disciples in 
some retired part of the mountain 
from which he now came out. This 
may not have been the same day as 
that on which he crossed the lake. 
Mr. Norton supposes that one or 
more days had intervened. The 
narrative in Mark vi. 33, 34, at first 
sight would indicate that the multi- 
tudes were fed on the same day that 
Jesus arrived there. His account 
is as follows : " And the people saw 
them departing, and many knew 
him, and ran afoot thither out of all 
cities, and outwent them and came 
together unto him. And Jesus 
when he came out, saw much peo- 
ple." According to the text in 
.Teschendorf 's edition, we must 
read : " And many saw them de- 
parting and knew them ; and on 
foot, from all the cities they ran 
together thither, and came before 
them. And when Jesus came out," 
&c. This may mean, that when 
Jesus came out from the boat he 
saw the multitudes, and then fed 
them. But considering the circum- 
stances of the case, and the rapid, 
sketchy manner in which the 
23* 



Evangelists group events that were 
separated in point of time, it is 
more probable that Jesus had spent 
some time there, perhaps a day or 
more, healing and instructing them, 
but seeking also for himself and his 
disciples seasons of retirement; and 
that once, when he came out from 
his retirement, and saw the people 
who had been there so long, weary, 
scattered, and hungry, — like sheep 
without a shepherd,' — his compas- 
sion for them was excited, and he 
fed them. There has been a differ- 
ence of opinion in regard to the 
place where the five thousand were 
miraculously fed, and which Jesus 
left to walk upon the lake. We 
think, however, there can be no 
longer any doubt that it was, as 
we have placed it, at the northeast 
corner of the lake, near Bethsaida, 
afterwards called Julias, where 
Philip, the tetrarch, resided at least 
a portion of the time, and where he 
died and was buried in a costly 
tomb. (See Robinson's Researches, 
III. p. 308.) John vi. 23 speaks of 
other vessels coming that night from 
Tiberias to the place where they 
had eaten bread. " The contrary 
wind," says Stanley in his Geogra- 
phy, p. 374, " which, blowing up 
the lake from the southwest, would 
prevent the boat from returning 
to Capernaum, would also bring 
' other boats ' from Tiberias, the 
chief city on the south, to Julias, 
the chief city on the north, and so 
enable the 'multitudes, when the 
storm had subsided, to cross at 
once, without the long journey on 
foot which thev had made the 
day before." This accords with 
the account given by John vi. 22 - 
24. 15. And when it 

w^as evening] 23. and 

w r hen the evening was come] 
From these two verses it would 
seem as if there were two evenings 



270 MATTHEW XIV. 

ing, This is a desert place, and the time is now past ; send the 
multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy 
themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need 16 
not depart ; give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, We n 
have here but five loaves and two fishes. He said, Bring 18 
them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit 19 
down on the grass, and took the five loaves and the two fishes, 
and, looking up to heaven ; he blessed, and brake, and gave 
the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. 
And they did all eat, and were filled ; and they took up of 20 
the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they 21 
that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women 
and children. 

And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a 22 
ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent 
the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes 23 
away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when 
the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was 24 
now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves; for the wind 
was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus 25 
went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples 26 
saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is 
a spirit ; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus 27 
spake unto them saying, Be of good cheer, it is I; be not 
afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be 28 
thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, 

that day. " This," says Trench on before us ; but the first seems to us 

the Miracles, p. 224, " was an ordi- the most satisfactory. The words 

nary way of speaking among the rendered " evening " or " even " 

Jews, the first evening being very (Exod. xii. 6, xxx. 8; Levit. xxiii. 5) 

much our afternoon (compare Luke mean "between the evenings," or 

ix. 12, Where the evening of Mat- " between the twilights." 

thew and Mark is described as the 20. twelve baskets full] Not 

day beginning to decline ) ; the improbably these were the baskets 

second evening being the twilight, in which the disciples carried their 

or from six o'clock to twilight." provisions. " The Jews," says Mr. 

Lightfoot, on the other hand, a great Norton, " seem to have been, in some 

authority in such matters, com- degree, distinguished by the use of 

paring 15 with 23, says: " That such baskets." Juvenal, Sat. VI. 

denotes the lateness of the day; 542, speaks of Jews at Rome, whose 

this, the lateness of the night. So, " whole furniture is a basket and 

'evening' in the Talmudists, signi- some hay." 28. bid me 

fies not only the declining part of the come unto thee] " In the ques- 

day, but [of] the night also." tionable little word 'me,' always 

Either explanation meets the case questionable when it too hastily re- 



MATTHEW XIV. 



271 



29 Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he 

30 walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the 
wind boisterous, he was afraid ; and beginning to sink, he 

31 cried, saying, Lord, save me ! And immediately Jesus 
stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, 

3-2 O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ? And when 

33 they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they 
that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a 
truth thou art the Son of God. 

34 And when they were gone over, they came into the land of 



fdies to Christ's powerful /, ere it 
las been specially asked and called, 
lurks the secret flaw in the great 
faith, on account of which it must 
soon again become very little. Had 
Christ of himself called out : ' And 
thou, Peter, come out to me,' he 
certainly would not have sunk. 
But, because he will outrun the 
others in showing his faith, the real 
Peter must show himself just as, 
alas! he still is, and give a warning 
of the future denial of his Lord ; 
falling back again as suddenly as he 
had raised himself." Stier. 
29. And he said, Come] But 
why did he allow him to come? 
Because the presuming and pre- 
sumptuous disciple needed the les- 
son, which he could not learn from 
any words of Jesus so well as from 
his own precipitate and humiliating 
experience. And so it is that God 
deals with us in his providence, 
often allowing us to adventure on 
our own rash and foolish schemes, 
because only by failure and disaster, 
through our own humiliating ex- 
perience and exposure, can we 
come to ourselves, and learn the 
true and humble gauge of our own 
powers. This is a great thing in 
the training of children and the edu- 
cation of the young, as well as in 
the discipline of maturer life. Not 
that system which is for the present 
the safest for the child is most to be 
desired, but that which will best 
call out all his powers, and by his 
own experience teach him the truest 
measure of himself. In this way 
only will he attain a true Christian 



modesty, which is always connected 
with a nice adjustment of a man's 
consciousness to all his faculties, so 
that he will not presume on what 
lies wholly beyond him, nor shrink 
from what lies within his compass. 
The fitting measure of our faith in 
ourselves, and, as with Peter, of 
our faith in God, can be gained 
only in this way by exposures 
which sometimes end in defeat and 
humiliation. 30. to sink] 

KaTanovTi^eaQai, a stronger word 
than to sink, — beginning to be 
buried in the eea. 31. And 

Jesus stretched forth his hand, 
and caught him] The calmness 
of Jesus, and the ease and natural- 
ness of the movement by which the 
affrighted disciple was rescued, are 
worthy of notice. There is nowhere 
in our" Saviour's life any indication 
of surprise. He is never, even for 
a moment, thrown off his guard. 
He does not seek an occasion for 
the exercise of his wonderful gifts, 
"but accepts them when they come. 
One woman, of a despised race, at 
the well of Jacob in Samaria (John 
iv. 1-43), called forth a discourse 
full of his richest and sublimest in- 
structions; and here, the violence 
of the storm and the terror of his 
disciples, excite him to no un- 
usual effort. " He reached out 
his hand, and laid hold of him, 
and said unto him, ' 0, thou of 
little faith, wherefore didst thou 
doubt? ' " 32. and wor- 

shipped him] did homage to 
him, saying, " Truly thou art 
God's Son.' 



272 MATTHEW XIV. 

Gennesaret. And when the men of that place had knowledge 35 
of him, they sent out into all that country round about ; and 
brought unto him all that were diseased, and besought him that 36 
they might only touch the hem of his garment ; and as many 
as touched were made perfectly whole. 






MATTHEW XV. 1-20. 273 



CHAPTER XV. 

1-20. — Jesus and the Jewish Traditions. 

1-6. The Scribes and Moses. The Scribes and 
Pharisees, who had come down from Jerusalem in order to 
find some serious charge against Jesus, ask him why it is 
that his disciples transgress the traditions of the elders as 
they do by eating with unwashed hands. Jesus replies to 
them in language of great severity, " Why do ye transgress 
the commandment of God by your tradition ? For God 
hath commanded, (Ex. xx. 12,) saying, Honor thy father 
and thy mother; and (Ex. xxi. 17) He that curseth father 
or mother shall be put to death. But ye teach, If a man 
say to his father or mother, Whatever I have which might 
benefit you is a gift to God, [and cannot therefore be used 
for your benefit],' he shall not honor his father or mother, 
i. e. he shall even be exempt from the obligation to honor 
and provide for them. And ye thus annul or render of none 
effect the commandment of God by your tradition." 

Lightfoot has shown that the Jewish Tahnudists attached 
greater weight to the Rabbinical traditions than to the law. 
" The words of the scribes," say they, " are lovely, above 
the words of the law ; for the words of the law are weighty 
and light ; but the words of the scribes are all weighty." 
Alford says, "The Jews attached more importance to the 
traditionary exposition than to the Scripture text itself. 
They compared the written word to water ; the traditionary 
exposition to the w r ine which must be mingled with it. The 
duty of washing before meat is not inculcated in the law, 
but only in the traditions of the Scribes. So rigidly did 
the Jews observe it, that Rabba Akiba, being imprisoned, 
and having water scarcely sufficient to sustain life given 



274 MATTHEW XV. 7, 8- 

him, preferred dying of thirst to eating without washing 
his hands." 

It is customary among the Jews to cut themselves off 
from the obligation of certain acts by consecrating their 
property to God as a gift so far as those specific acts were 
concerned. Their property might be used for anything else, 
but not for those particular acts. For example, if a man 
wished to free himself from the obligation to support his 
parents, he might set aside his whole property as a gift to 
God, so far as any advantage might accrue to them from it, 
and, according to the traditions of the elders, he would then 
have no right to use any part of it for the benefit of his 
parents, though he might use it for any other purpose. 
Thus they set at naught the law of God by their quibbling 
traditions, and justified by their traditions those who did 
not honor their father or their mother. 



7, 8. — Fulfilment of Prophecy. 

Jesus has confronted the Scribes by the authority of 
Moses, their great lawgiver. He here shows how the 
condemnation of one of their prophets falls on them : " Well 
did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said, This people 
honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from 
me. But in vain do they worship me teaching for doc- 
trine the commandments of men." Dr. Noyes's translation 
of this passage (Isa. xxix. 13, 14) is as follows: — 

"Since this people draweth near to me with their mouth, 
And honoreth me with their lips, 
While their heart is far from me, 

And their worship of me is according to the commandments of men, 
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to deal marvellously with this people; 
Marvellously and wonderfully. 
For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, 
And the prudence of the prudent shall be hid." 

These words were undoubtedly applied by the prophet 
to the men of his own day ; and we have no reason to 



MATTHEW XV. 7, 8. 275 

suppose that he had in his mind the thought of any- 
further application. How then could Jesus say, " Well 
did Isaiah prophesy concerning you when he said, This 
people," &c. They not only contain a direct message to 
the Jews, who lived in the time of Isaiah ; but that message 
is so put as to contain in itself a general truth which 
is prophetic of the condition of all men, whenever and 
wherever they may live, who seek to propitiate the favor 
of God by their distant, outside, hypocritical worship. 
See above, xiii. 14. 

But does not this involve a double sense ? Is it right 
to use the authority of the prophet in applying his words 
to persons whom he could not have had in his mind at 
the time he spoke ? This is what Jesus has done in the 
passage before us. And, notwithstanding the dread many- 
persons have of attributing a double or rather a twofold 
meaning of this kind to the language of Scripture, it is what 
is constantly done with other language. Every expression 
which, originally spoken solely with reference to a spe- 
cific case, is so put as to involve a general truth, may- 
be used in this way. If the Scriptures more than all 
other writings have been so applied, it is only because, 
under the simplest forms of speech, and often with direct 
reference to specific cases, they more than all other writings 
express the most profound and universal truth. 

The Supreme Court of the United States may give a 
decision which is of little consequence in its application 
to the case immediately in hand. And that case is the 
only one which is before the Court, and to which they 
specifically apply their decision. But that decision may 
involve considerations of momentous importance in cases 
to which the principles there established by the authority 
of the highest judicial tribunal of the land may hereafter 
be applied. The language which is at first applied spe- 
cifically only to a single case, nevertheless embraces with- 
in its scope and within the intention of the Court, all 



276 MATTHEW XV. 7, 8. 

cases of the same character that may arise afterwards. 
What is said of one is said of all, — that one case is a type 
of all the rest, and the authority which decides it applies 
with equal force to all the rest. So in the decisions of 
the great Judge of all, as announced by his prophets, 
the principles involved in the case to which they are spe- 
cifically applied and the consequences flowing from those 
principles, reach on with the weight of their divine au- 
thority, and find their fulfilment in every analogous case 
that may afterwards arise. Whatever may be said of 
the doctrine of types, and the absurd extent to which 
it has been carried, or of the interpretation sometimes 
put on the prediction of specific events, many of the an- 
cient prophecies stand forth as types or outshadowings 
and foreshadowings of divine truths, which shall be per- 
petually fulfilling themselves in the experience of all times. 
The passage quoted here from Isaiah is one of this kind. 
The predicted destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, imme- 
diately fulfilled in the fatal retribution which fell on those 
wicked cities, became, through that fulfilment, a type or 
sign of the retribution which is in store for every corrupt 
and ungodly people. The principle of retributive justice, 
which is involved and announced in that case, holds true 
always, and applies with more or less force to every new 
case that may arise. 

Of this character are the instructions here given to the 
Pharisees. The question immediately at issue between 
them and Jesus relates to a matter which is in itself of 
no sort of interest or importance now. But this specific 
case of washing before meat is made to stand out as the 
type or representative of all similar cases, and brings out 
the great essential principles in such a way as to elucidate 
the whole subject of a spiritual or formal worship, and 
to furnish instruction in this matter for all times. Where 
a sincere and vital religion is dying out, there is always 
a disposition, with a numerous class of men, to seek refuge 






MATTHEW XV. 11-15. 277 

in forms, and to put their consciences to sleep by multiply- 
ing religious forms at the expense of the essential principles 
of devout and holy living. This fatal tendency, belonging 
alike to unenlightened and to the most luxurious times, 
making void the law of God by human traditions and 
observances, is here exposed and condemned. The heart 
as the centre of the life is the one thing to be kept pure. 
The thoughts which proceed from that, and not the neglect 
of outside forms, are what defile the man. Mr. Norton 
has quoted from Philo Judreus a passage very similar to 
this. " Through the mouth, as Plato says, mortal things 
enter, and imperishable things pass out. For food and 
drink enter it, perishable nutriment of the perishable body ; 
but words proceed from it, immortal laws of the immortal 
soul, by which the rational life is governed." — Philo, De 
Mundi Opificio, Opp. I. 29. 

The fact that so plain a statement as that of Jesus, 11, 
should appear to the disciples, 15, a parable or dark say- 
ing which needed explanation, shows how dull their spirit- 
ual perceptions were at that time, and how slow they were 
to free themselves from the superstitious formalities of the 
Jews. The same attitude of mind towards Jewish teachers 
and observances is indicated by the vehemence with which 
they put the question, 12, " Dost thou know how the Phari- 
sees were offended by thy words ? " His reply is, " Every 
plant which my Father hath not planted shall be rooted 
up." As if he had said, The Pharisees are here the rec- 
ognized and authoritative teachers of the law. Still, if 
they teach anything not in accordance with the truth, 
anything which my Father doth not approve and sustain, 
it cannot stand, but will be rooted up as a plant which 
he hath not planted. Give them up as your guides. They 
are only blind leaders of the blind ; and no good, but mis- 
chief only, can come of their instructions. Here, 15, Peter 
asks an explanation of the parable, 11. It was not a 
parable in one sense of the word ; but the disciples could 

24 



278 MATTHEW XV. 21-28. 

not understand it. With an expression of sorrowful sur- 
prise that they even yet should be unable to understand 
words so simple, he explains his meaning in such a man- 
ner as to do away forever, one would think, at least among 
his followers, all superstitious regard for merely external 
observances in matters of religion. 

The Syro-Phoznician Woman. 

21-28. In order to escape from the crowds, with the 
tumults and controversies connected with them, as well 
as to prevent any premature and mistaken movement in 
his behalf, he retired from the lake of Galilee towards 
the northwest, to the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon. It is 
a question among commentators whether he actually entered 
their territory or remained still within the limits of Gali- 
lee. He sought retirement. " He went (Mark vii. 24, 25) 
into a house, and would have no man know it ; but he 
could not be hid ; for a woman, whose daughter had an 
unclean spirit heard of him," and came crying after him. 
The desire to escape observation will account for the anx- 
iety of the disciples to stop her cries. For in calling 
after them she must necessarily attract attention. She 
was a Grecian by descent, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, 
and from her birthplace called, as she is here, a woman 
of Canaan. At first Jesus paid no regard to her. His 
object probably was to call out and strengthen her faith, 
by subjecting it to trial. This is in accordance with the 
whole discipline of life. He therefore, said within her 
hearing, "I am sent only," i. e. his personal ministry 
was confined, " to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 
But instead of being discouraged, she threw herself at 
his feet, and with affecting earnestness entreated him to 
assist her. He replied to her, "It is not right to take 
the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs." 
" Yes, Lord," she exclaimed, " it is ; for even the little 



MATTHEW XV. 32-38. 279 

dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's 
table." The humble, trusting character of this speech 
showed that nothing more was needed for her. " O woman, 
great is thy faith. Be it to thee as thou wishest." And 
her daughter was healed from that hour. What was this 
faith ? Not knowledge ; she had not that. Not a belief 
in certain theological doctrines. It is certain that she 
knew nothing of them. Her faith consisted in a readi- 
ness to believe, — an humble, trusting attitude of mind and 
heart, — " the tenderest susceptibility for what is heavenly." 
As to the apparent severity of Jesus towards her, " It is," 
as Olshausen has said, " Christian experience alone which 

opens our way to the right understanding of this 

The restraining of his grace, the manifestation of a treat- 
ment wholly different from what the woman may at first 
have expected, acted as a check usually does on power 
when it really exists, the whole inherent energy of her 
living faith broke forth, and the Saviour suffered him- 
self to be overcome by her Where faith is weak, 

he anticipates and comes to meet it ; where faith is strong, 
he holds himself far off in order that it may in itself be 
carried to perfection." 

Feeding the Four Thousand. 

32-38. It has been supposed by some modern writers, 
as Schleiermacher, Neander, &c, that this account and 
that in xiv. 14-21, are but different accounts of the same 
transaction. The circumstances, it is said, the place, the 
multitude, the compassion of Jesus, the perplexity of the 
disciples as to what should be done, the sort of food at 
hand, are substantially the same in the two accounts. But 
these would be likely to be substantially the same if the 
miracle had been repeated anywhere in that vicinity. The 
only exception to what we should look for is in the perplex- 
ity of the disciples. How could they, after witnessing the 



280 MATTHEW XV. 32-38. 

first miracle, be so much at a loss here ? The reply is, 
that, though they had seen Jesus perform many miracles, 
they had never, except in a single instance, known him 
to use his miraculous power for such a purpose as that. 
Why, then, should they expect it now ? Some of the cir- 
cumstances are alike in the two cases, but others again 
are different. In the first, there were 5,000 persons ; in the 
second only 4,000. In the first, there were five loaves and 
two fishes ; in the second, seven loaves and a few fishes. 
In the first, it is not said how long the multitudes were 
with Jesus ; in the second they were with him three days. 
In the first, specific mention is made of a storm on the lake 
and of Jesus walking on the water; in the second he is 
represented as crossing the lake in a vessel without any 
such occurrence. In so concise an account of two similar 
events we should hardly expect a greater variety in the 
details, which certainly point to two distinct transactions. 
Besides (xvi. 9, 10) Jesus explicitly refers to the two 
miracles. It may also be added, that in the first account 
the word translated baskets is Ko(pivovs, while here it is 
anvpidas, a long basket, which travellers sometimes used 
as a bed when they pass the night in the open air, 
and the same as that in which Saul was let down from 
the wall (Acts ix. 25). The same distinction is observed 
in our Saviour's reference to the two miracles, and in all 
these cases the distinction is found in the Curetonian 
Syriac Gospels. In the repetition of the miracle, there 
is nothing improbable. When we consider what multi- 
tudes thronged around the steps of Jesus, and that the 
east side of the lake was a desert place, at a distance 
from villages where food could be procured for such a 
concourse of people, we can hardly think it strange, if 
more than once towards the close of the day, he should 
have had compassion on the weary multitudes, and fed 
them by his miraculous power lest they should hunger 
and faint by the way. 



MATTHEW XV. 281 

39. Having dismissed the multitude, Jesus went into 
a vessel and passed to the vicinity of Magdala, or, as the 
best copies have it, Magadan. Magdala is near the southeast 
corner of the plain of Genesareth. For an interesting 
and graphic description of this fertile and populous region, 
see Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, pp. 366-375. After 
his account of what that country once was, he says, " Of 
all the numerous towns and villages in what must have 
been the most thickly peopled district of Palestine, one 
only remains. A collection of a few hovels stands at 
the southeastern corner of the plain, — its name hardly 
altered from the ancient Magdala or Migdol, — so called, 
probably, from a watch-tower, of which ruins appear to 
remain, that guarded the entrance of the plain ; deriving 
its whole celebrity from its being the birthplace of her, 
through whom the name of ' Magdalen ' has been in- 
corporated into the languages of the world. A large soli- 
tary thorn-tree stands beside it. Its situation, otherwise 
unmarked, is dignified by the high limestone rock which 
overhangs it on the southwest, perforated with caves, re- 
calling, by a curious, though doubtless unintentional coin- 
cidence, the scene of Correggio's celebrated picture." 



NOTES. 

Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of 

2 Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tra- 
dition of the elders ? for they wash not their hands, when they 

3 eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye 

1. which were of Jerusalem] ency he has now gained. 2. 

The fact that Scribes and Pharisees for they Avash not their hands 

had come from Jerusalem to watch when they eat bread] Not that 

and oppose Jesus, shows incident- they did not have clean hands, but 

ally what an impression he had that they did not wash them. It 

been making, and what an ascend- was a superstitious duty to wash 
24* 



282 



MATTHEW XV. 



also transgress the conunandment of God, by your tradition ? 
For God commanded, saying, " Honor thy father and moth- 
er ; " and, " He that curseth father or mother, let him die the 
death." But ye say, " Whosoever shall say to his father or his 
mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by 
me ; and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. 
Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect 
by your tradition. Ye hypocrites ! well did Esaias prophesy 



their hands before eating bread, 
whether they were clean or not, — 
particularly before eating bread. 

3. Observe the solemn 
contrast between the command- 
ment of God, and the tradition of 
men, even though the tradition 
was held to by the elders and 
teachers. 4. Honor thy 

father and mother] The stress 
which Jesus lays on this great com- 
mandment is remarkable. Its ob- 
servance is to an extraordinary ex- 
tent a criterion of the morals of a 
people. There is a saying among 
the Chinese, " If a man show rev- 
erence for his father and mother in 
his house, why go farther to burn 
spices? " There is a place holy 
enough for sacrifice and worship. 
-Where there is this reverence for 
parents, the simplicity of the char- 
acter and the freshness of the heart 
are preserved. He who honors his 
father and mother will honor God. 

6. he shall be free] 
These words, inserted by our trans- 
lators, do not belong here. The 
second clause of the sentence is the 
apodosis to the first, which begins in 
verse 5 : " Whosoever shall say to 
his father or mother, ' Anything I 
have which might be used for your 
benefit is, so far as you are con- 
cerned, set aside as a consecrated 
gift [and therefore not to be em- 
ployed for you],' he shall not honor 
his father or his mother." Thus 
setting aside all his property, so far 
as relates to his parents, he has 
freed himself from all obligation to 
provide for them ; and, therefore, 
rightly, so the Scribes taught, he 
shall "not be obliged to honor them. 
" Whosoever shall say to his father 
or mother, 'Let it be a [devoted] 



gift in whatsoever thou mightest be 
helped by me ' ; then let him not 
honor his father and mother at all." 
Lightfoot. 7. Ye hypo- 

crites] This is the first time that 
Jesus directly addresses the Scribes 
and Pharisees by this term. Hith- 
erto he has rather reproved them 
by holding up the principles of 
righteousness which opposed and 
overthrew all their superstitious 
conventionalisms. But now, when 
they put to him a question which 
directly involves the principles that 
separate him and them, he at first 
states strongly the inconsistency 
between their tradition and the 
commandments of God, and then 
directly charges them with the one 
crime which vitiated all their relig- 
ion, and which from that day to 
this has been the characteristic of 
their successors. When men sep- 
arate the forms of religion from its 
substance, and substitute man's tra- 
ditions for the commandments of 
God, however specious the pre- 
tence, and however artfully dis- 
guised the processes by which their 
purpose is to be accomplished, they 
are led by a superstitious spirit 
through dishonest methods into 
hypocrisy, — that hideous crime 
against man and God, on which 
the heaviest denunciations of our 
Saviour fell. Every step away from 
the simplicity of the truth, as it 
stands revealed to us by God in 
Christ, is a step in this direction. 
It gives to human explanations, 
glosses, institutions the authority 
which belongs only to the com- 
mandments of God/ It substitutes 
human formulas of faith, and forms 
of worship, with the idle ceremonies 
growing out of them, for the wor- 



MATTHEW XV. 



283 



8 of you, saying, " This people draweth nigh unto me with their 
mouth, and honoreth me with their lips ; but their heart is far 

9 from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doc- 

io trines the commandments of men." And he called the mul- 

n titude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand. Not that 

which goeth into the mouth defileth a man ; but that which 

1-2 cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Then came 

his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Phari- 

13 sees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he an- 
swered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath 

14 not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone ; they be blind 
leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall 

15 tail into the ditch. Then answered Peter, and said unto him, 

16 Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said : Are ye also yet 

17 without understanding ? Do not ye yet understand that what- 
soever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast 

18 out into the draught ? But those things which proceed out of 
the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. 

19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts ; murders, adulte- 

20 ries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are 
the things which defile a man ; but to eat with unwashen hands 
defileth not a man. 

21 Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of 



ship and the morality which Jesus 
has taught, and thus renders the 
law of God of none effect through 
its superstitious and hypocritical 
traditions. So true in regard to 
them is the language of Isaiah, that 
their heart is alienated from God, 
and their moral and spiritual per- 
ceptions blunted. If the pure and 
devout, who are led away by these 
subtle processes from the simplicity 
of the Gospel, could only give up 
the human hindrances which offer 
themselves to them as helps, and 
sit at the feet of Jesus to learn of 
him, and thus receive their religion 
directly from him, rather than from 
the perverse and impure channels 
through which it comes to them, 
how would the face of the world be 
changed ! But there is always this 
tendency and weakness in our hu- 
man nature; this clinging to helps 
beyond what God has given; and 



the strong man, hardened into hy- 
pocrisy, knows how to avail him- 
self of the timid consciences of the 
weak, and how to turn to his own 
ends the pliant, trusting faith of the 
unsuspecting. 13. Every 

plant] Not that Avhich has grown 
naturally, but that which is planted 
and fostered by man, — the com- 
mandments of men, which are taught 
for doctrines. 16. yet 

without understanding] What, 
still not able to understand so simple 
a truth, — ye who have been with 
me so long? This conversation 
with the disciples (12 -20) was after 
he had entered into the house (Mark 
vii. 17), and when he was probably 
with them alone. 20. which 

defile the man] " In the very 
appellation of man is contained an 
argument: for the spiritual nature, 
which is the superior part in man, 
is not reached by outward filth." 



284 



MATTHEW XV. 



Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out 22 
of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on 
me, O Lord, thou son of David ; my daughter is grievously 
vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And 23 
his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, 
for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not 24 
sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then 25 



Bengel. 23. Send her 

away] The disciples probably 
meant to ask of Jesus that he 
should grant her request, heal her 
child, and let her go. for she 

crieth after us] They wished to 
escape the attention and notoriety 
which her cries were likely to at- 
tract. " We may suppose," says 
Bengel, " that the disciples feared 
the judgment of men, and made 
their petition to our Lord, both for 
their own sake, lest her crying 
should produce annoyance, and for 
the sake of the woman herself." 
24. I am not sent 
hut unto the lost sheep of the 
house of Israel ] " After those 
flocks which have strayed away from," 
&c, seeking the scattered Israelites 
in the regions of Tyre and Sidon, 
Jesus confined his personal ministry 
almost entirely to the Jews. In his 
directions to the Apostles he com- 
manded them (Matt. x. 5) not to go 
into the way of the Gentiles, or into 
any city of the Samaritans. Not, as 
some have supposed, that his per- 
sonal sympathies were bound in by 
Jewish prejudices. His conversa- 
tion with the woman of Samaria, 
and his remaining at Sychar two 
days, show the kindness of his feel- 
ing towards them, and his readiness 
to do them good. But the disciples, 
who were slow to rise above their 
Jewish px*ejudices, were not yet pre- 
pared so as to be trusted with peo- 
ple or in places where their national 
antipathies were likely to be ex- 
cited. "Jesus," says "Dr. Nichols, 
" plainly intended to restrict his 
labors, and those of his Apostles 
also, during his own life, within the 
limits of the Jewish nation. We 
may not know his reasons, but one 
naturally occurs. The Judaic ele- 



ment was important to his church 
at that period, in several respects. 
Before Christianity had gained an 
establishment in the world, it had 
special occasion for those aids which 
this element might afford it. One 
aid was the remarkable attachment 
of the Jew to his own Scriptures; 
and to these Scriptures, especially 
the Prophecies, Christianity appeal- 
ed as one of its principal supports. 
The Old Testament was the classic, 
the rubric, the oracle, the glory of 
the Hebrew. He counted its very 
letters. It was to him the word of 
God; and let him embrace a relig- 
ion as being based upon this foun- 
dation, and no superstition or phi- 
losophy would occasion any peril to 
his faith. We cannot overlook this 
reason, why, in that system of moral 
harmonies which always character- 
izes the Divine administration, the 
Christian seed should have been 
sown in a Jewish soil. The Gospel 
was not left to stand alone on its 
own simple moral claims, which 
the world was so little prepared to 
appreciate, — no, nor even on its 
own miraculous testimonials. But 
there was a religious culture in the 
Jewish mind adapted to yield it a 
powerful support, such as it could 
derive from no other human source. 
God was pleased to connect the two 
systems of Judaism and Christian- 
ity ; and while the one was a school- 
master to bring men to Christ, the 
other was a completion and confir- 
mation of its predecessor 

The Jewish convert to Christianity 
felt an intensity of interest in his 
new belief such as a Jew only could 
feel. Accustomed to look upon his 
own nation as the chosen subject of 
a Divine administration, familiar 
with special manifestations in its 



MATTHEW XV. 



285 



26 came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me ! But 
he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's 

27 bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord ; 
yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's 



favor through all his ancestral his- 
tory, lie took up his adopted re- 
ligion with a trust and a zeal of 
which no Gentile belief was capa- 
ble, and which were so necessary to 
bear it triumphantly over the sea 
of prejudice and persecution upon 
which it was then launched. Bless- 
ings winch ask no assistance from 
circumstances are of rare occur- 
rence in our world." Hours with 
the Evangelists, Vol. I. pp. 390 - 
383. 26. to dogs] little 

dogx, a diminutive, which may have 
been used somewhat as a term of 
endearment, and which therefore 
may have taken away something 
from the apparent harshness of our 
Saviour's language in speaking 
thus to a distressed mother respect- 
ing her suffering child. 
27. And she said, Truth, Lord ; 
yet the dogs eat of the crumbs] 
Our English version fails, we think, 
to give the true meaning of this 
passage. The exact translation is 
as follows : " Yea, Lord ; for the 
little dogs eat," &c. In conformity 
with the Greek idiom, we are to 
suppose an ellipsis or omission be- 
fore the word yap, for, which must 
be supplied in English, in order to 
make the passage intelligible, and 
may be given as follows : " Yea, 
Lord [but do not deny me] ; for 
even the little dogs." &c. Bengel, 
whom even Winer regards as a great 
authority in such matters, says : 
" The particle va\ [ yea ] partly 
assents ; partly, as it were, places 
on our Loi-d's tongue the assent to 
her prayers, i. e. prays." She puts 
such a construction" on his words, 
that while by the expression, ' Yea, 
Lord,' she assents to them, she, at 
the same time, turns aside the ap- 
parent edge of their denial, and 
draws from them encouragement to 
continue her petition, which she 
does in the most delicate way, by a 
turn of expression (" Yea, Lord ; 



for even the little dogs," &c.) which 
implies a further entreaty on her 
part, though it does not state it 
in words. It is impossible to sup- 
ply the ellipsis in English without 
marring the exceeding fineness and 
delicacy of the sentiment. The 
modesty and reverence towards 
Christ which are here implied, — 
her humility in regard to anv claims 
which she might have upon' him, — 
her ready assent to the apparently 
disparaging terms in which he had 
alluded to her and hers, — her per- 
fect faith in him, and the devoted 
love for her child which, while it 
could not accept, any refusal, yet 
pressed its claims with such a deli- 
cate and reverential reserve towards 
him from whom she knew that re- 
lief might come, — give a peculiar 
and affecting moral beauty to these 
words, which evidently touched our 
Saviour as indicating to him the 
finest qualities of character. In Dr. 
Cureton's Syriac Gospels, a word is 
added, which is found both in the 
Peshito and the Jerusalem Syriac, 
and which heightens the interest 
and pathos of the passage : " She 
saith to him, Yea, ray Lord ; for 
even the dogs eat of * the crumbs 
which fall from their masters' 
tables, and live.'''' The expression, 
and live, in allusion to the sick child 
for whose life she is pleading, is 
one of those fine touches of nature 
which can hardly be counterfeited, 
and which bear in themselves de- 
cisive marks of genuineness. The 
whole narrative is worthy of study ; 
this refined and delicate woman, as 
her language shows her to have 
been, in her distress on account of 
her daughter, and her efforts for her 
relief, forgetting herself and every- 
thing around her so entirely as to 
follow after Jesus and his company 
of_ men, with cries which were 
bringing on them an unpleasant 
amount of attention; her following 



286 



MATTHEW XV. 



table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, 28 
great is thy faith ; be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her 
daughter was made whole from thatfrrery hour. 

And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the 29 
Sea of Galilee ; and went up into a mountain, and sat down 
there. And great multitudes came unto him, having with 30 
them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many 
others ; and cast them down at Jesus's feet, and he healed 
them ; insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw 31 
the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, 

and the blind to see ; and they glorified the God of Israel. 

Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have 32 
compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me 
now three days, and have nothing to eat ; and I will not send 
them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. And his disci- 33 
pies say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in 
the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude ? And Jesus 34 
saith unto them, How many loaves have ye ? And they said, 
Seven, and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multi- 35 
tude to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves 36 



after him still, and beseeching him 
to help her, though he answered her 
not a word; the entreaty of the 
disciples that he would send her 
away, and his reply to them " that 
he is not sent except to the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel ; " — all 
these things, instead of discouraging 
her, only leading her to prostrate 
herself before him, and calling out 
from her a more affecting appeal 
to him for help ; — every one of the 
particulars is worthy of attention, 
and may furnish an instructive 
lesson. Such persistency in ask- 
ing, and yet such submissiveness ; 
such earnestness, and yet such rev- 
erence and delicacy, are rarely com- 
bined, and they furnish a beautiful 
type of Christian character. We 
see here as elsewhere how the mira- 
cle is subordinated to its higher in- 
fluences and teachings. 30. 
And great multitudes] Jesus 
returns to Galilee, and is encom- 
passed again by multitudes of peo- 
ple. To those who travel in that 
region now, it is a matter of wonder 



where such crowds could have come 
from. But according to Josephus 
(See Milman's Hist, of Christianity, 
Bk. I. Chap. IV.) the whole province 
of Galilee was at that time crowded 
with flourishing towns and cities, 
be} r ond almost any other region of 
the world. According to his state- 
ments, " the number of towns, and 
the population of Galilee, in a dis- 
trict of between fifty and sixty 
miles in length, and between sixty. 
and seventy in breadth, was no 
less than 204 cities an 3 villages, the 
least of which contained 15,000 
souls." This would make, for the 
whole pi-ovince, a population of 
more than three millions. There is 
some reason, we think, to question 
the exactness of the large numerical 
statements which are found in 
ancient writers ; but after all rea- 
sonable deductions have been made 
from this account, there will still 
remain a population sufficiently 
dense to confirm the Gospel nar- 
ratives in regard to the ease with 
which large multitudes were col- 



MATTHEW XV. 287 

and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to 
37 his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did 

all eat, and were filled ; and they took up of the broken meat 
3S that was left seven baskets full. And they that did eat were 
39 four thousand men, beside women and children. And he sent 

away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of 

Majrdala. 



looted in that region. 39. Magdalum, so some MSS., in Matt 

Magdala] In Tischendorf's edi- xv. 39, turn Magdala into Maga- 

tion, this is Magadan. "As Herodo- dan." Stanley. In the Curetonian 

tus (II. 159) turns Megiddo into Syriac Gospels it is Magadun. 






L 



288 MATTHEW XVI. 1-4. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

1-4. — A Sign from Heaven. 

1-4. The Pharisees and Sadducees demand a sign from 
heaven. They had witnessed his miracles, but wished for 
something more. " In the Jewish superstition," says Alford, 
" it was held that demons and false gods could give signs on 
earth, but only the true God, signs from heaven." " And 
thus we find that, immediately after the first miraculous feed- 
ing, the same demand was made, (John vi. 30,) and an- 
swered by the declaration of our Lord, that He was the true 
bread from heaven." Reference to the same habit of the 
Jewish mind is found in 1 Cor. i. 22, " The Jews demand 
signs, and the Greeks seek for wisdom." It probably was 
at the close of the day when the demand for a sign from 
heaven was made of Jesus, and the sunset glow of the 
heavens suggested his answer. For the Jews, according to 
Lightfoot, were curious in observing the seasons, and in fore- 
telling the state of the weather. They asked of him a sign 
from heaven. He replies, looking probably to the western 
sky, " It being now evening, ye say, It will be fair, for the 
sky is red; and, in the morning, ye say, there will be a 
storm, for the sky is red and lowering. Ye know how 
to distinguish the aspects of the sky, and can ye not also un- 
derstand the signs of the times." As if he had said : " It is 
your business to understand things spiritual and divine. 
You profess to be the moral and religious teachers of this 
people. And here you are asking a sign from heaven. 
But how is it that ye do not understand the signs which are 
actually given ? You know how to foretell the state of the 



MATTHEW XVI. 13-18. 289 

weather from the aspect of the sky, and can ye not, in the 
miracles which I have wrought, and the truths which I have 
been teaching, and the new life that I am awakening, see the 
signs of the times ? Can ye not see in them the signs of a 
new era, of a purer and higher kingdom to be established on 
earth ? If your minds were open to spiritual, as your eyes 
are to material things, you would see all around you mani- 
fest indications of the changes that I am to introduce." 

5-13. The noticeable fact here is the extreme slowness 
of spiritual apprehension which is manifested by the disci- 
ples, especially when their perplexity here about bread is 
compared with the specific instructions on that point which 
had just been given to them, (xv. 11,) and repeated with an 
explanation, (xv. .17-20,) which could not be misunder- 
stood. 



13-18. — On this Kock I build my Church. 

The above conversation took place on the vessel as they 
were crossing the lake. They arrived at Bethsaida on the 
northeast corner of the lake, and in passing from that city 
to Caesarea Philippi, which lies far to the north, near 
Mount Hermon, the remaining incidents recorded in this 
chapter took place. 

Who do men say that I the Son of man am ? They re- 
ply, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and some Jer- 
emiah, or one of the prophets. These different views pre- 
vailing at that time show the vague, but at the same time 
the active and w T ide-spread- expectations of the time. The 
reply of Peter, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
God," is the first distinct declaration of faith on the part of 
the disciples. Jesus excepts this one article of faith as con- 
taining the true idea of his office, and the foundation of his 
Church. " Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah, because 
flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Fa- 
ther who is in the heavens. And I say unto thee that thou 
25 



290 MATTHEW XVI. 19. 

art a rock (Peter means rock), and on this rock will I 
build my Church, and the gates of death (Hades, not Ge- 
henna) shall not prevail against it." 

There are two explanations of this passage. According 
to one, Peter is identified with the declaration which he has 
just made, as the person hearing the word is identified with 
what he hears (xiii. 20.) When Jesus therefore says, 
" Thou art a rock, and on this rock will I build my Church," 
he means that this confession of faith in him as the Messiah, 
the Son of the living God, is the foundation on which his 
Church is to be built. According to the other explanation, 
Peter himself, as the foremost of the disciples, and the first 
to recognize from the teachings of Jesus this essential truth, 
is the stone or pillar on which his Church is to be built. 
" He was," says Alford, " the first of those foundation-stones 
(Eph. ii. 20, Rev. xxi. 14,) on which the living temple of 
God was built : this building itself beginning on the day of 
Pentecost by the laying of three thousand living stones on 
this very foundation." For this sort of reference to the pil- 
lars and stones of the spiritual building see 1 Peter ii. 4-6, 
1 Tim. iii. 15, Gal. ii. 9, Eph. ii. 20, Rev. iii. 12. 

19. — The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

In verse 19 the figure is changed. "I give to thee the 
keys of the kingdom of Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt 
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever 
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The 
kingdom of Heaven is, 1. The religion of Jesus, with its 
Divine influences, entering the individual soul, and establish- 
ing its dominion over it. 2. When it has entered different 
souls and united them under its authority into a community, 
it becomes an outward institution or kingdom, receiving or 
rejecting men according to its influence over them individu- 
ally. 3. But the kingdom of Heaven does not fulfil and 
complete its work here on the earth. When those who have 



MATTHEW XVI. 19. 291 

submitted to its influence and authority here lay down the 
burden of the flesh,' the kingdom of Heaven is the name 
applied to the more perfect and glorious condition of being 
into which they then enter. Jesus uses the expression in 
these three different ways. When therefore he says to Pe- 
ter, " I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven," 
he means, I will give to thee the truths by which my re- 
ligion shall be unlocked and laid open to the souls of men, 
to that it may act upon them as a spiritual power, and re- 
ceive them into itself as an outward institution, or a divinely 
organized community of souls. And more than this. So far, 
its work is on the earth. But it is not confined to the earth. 
"What is done here, in this lower sphere of the kingdom of 
Heaven in accordance with its laws, applies with equal force 
in its higher sphere, in the heavens, where those same laws 
prevail. Whatever is done in accordance with those laws 
here is recognized as in accordance with them there above, 
wherever that kingdom extends. Whatever is bound or 
loosed in accordance with them here, has the sanction of 
Heaven, and is bound or loosed there. They who, accept- 
ing the offers of salvation, become members of the kingdom 
of Heaven on earth, become by that act members of the 
kingdom of Heaven above ; and they who by rejecting its 
offers exclude themselves from it here, at the same time 
close its doors against them in the heavens. In this sense, 
what is bound or loosed on earth is bound or loosed in 
heaven. 

But how is it that Jesus uses this language in his address 
to Peter alone ? It is addressed to him as the spokesman 
or representative of the Apostles. As Olshausen has said, 
"That which at verse 19 is spoken to St. Peter is at Matt. 
xviii. 18, John xx. 23, addressed to all the Apostles. One 
cannot therefore find in these words anything that is peculiar 
to St. Peter ; he merely answers as the organ of the college 
of Apostles, and Christ, acknowledging him as such, re- 
plies to him, and speaks through him to them all" " That 



292 MATTHEW XVI. 21-28. 

which is through St. Peter bestowed on the Apostles, was 
again through the Apostles conferred on the whole Church." 
" That the Apostles then, and their true successors in the 
Spirit, turned with the word of truth towards one place, and 
away from another, that they followed up their labors on one 
man and not on another, in this consisted the binding and 
loosing. The whole new spiritual community which the 
Saviour seems to found took its rise from the Apostles and 
their labors. No one became a Christian save through them, 
and thus the Church through all time is built up in living 
union with its origin. Christianity is no bare summary of 
truths and reflections to which a man even in a state of iso- 
lation might attain ; it is a life-stream which flows through 
the human race, and its fountains must reach every separate 
individual who is to be drawn within this circle of life. The 
Gospel is identified and grown into union with the persons. 
The explanation, therefore, of the passage which the Prot- 
estant Church usually opposes to the view of the Catholics, 
according to which the faith of Peter, and the confession of 
that faith, is the rock, is entirely the correct one, — only the 
faith itself and his confession of it must not be regarded as 
apart from Peter himself personally." 

21-28. — The Humiliation and Sufferings of the 
Messiah. 

21. Here commences a new era in the ministry of Jesus. 
He now for the first time openly and plainly (Mark viii. 32) 
announced to his disciples the sufferings and death and res- 
urrection from the dead through which he was soon to pass. 
They could not take in the idea. They remembered his 
words, but it was not till after his resurrection tiiat they un- 
derstood what was meant by them. The words were indeed 
so fearfully distinct, that at first they could not be misinter- 
preted. Peter, adhering still to his mistaken ideas of the 
Messiah and his kingdom, and unable to admit the possibil- 



MATTHEW XVI. 21-28. 293 

ity of such degradation and sufferings as have just been 
foretold, in the ardent impetuosity which so often showed 
itself in his conduct, laid hold on Jesus, and remonstrated 
with him as one does with a friend in despondency. (See 
Whately, Good and Evil Spirits, p. 135.) " God be gra- 
cious to thee, Lord ; this thing shall not be to thee." As if 
he had said, " There is no ground for such gloomy appre- 
hensions. This cannot be." It was an act of ignorant pre- 
sumption for him to address Jesus in this way. The sugges- 
tion evidently touched him most keenly. Turning to Peter, 
and looking at the disciples (Mark viii. 33), he rebuked Pe- 
ter, and said to him, " Get thee behind me, Satan ; thou art 
a stumbling-block to me, because thou regardest not the 
things of God, but the things of men." 

Why does Jesus show such extreme sensitiveness ? He 
had used the same expression once before (Matt. iv. 10), in 
his last reply to the tempter in the wilderness. It has been 
supposed that it is not applied to Peter so much as to the 
evil spirit from whom the suggestion came. But the lan- 
guage is very explicit. " Turning, he said to Peter, Get 
thee behind me, Satan," thou tempter. Here, as in the 
other case (iv. 10, see note there), where the same expres- 
sion is used, there is something which indicates a peculiar 
sensitiveness, as if Jesus entered enough into the feeling of 
the disciple to be himself not wholly insensible to the temp- 
tation which came here under its most insidious form. " Un- 
questionably," says Olshausen, "the Saviour must be con- 
ceived of as having maintained one continuous conflict with 
temptations. The great periods of such temptations at the 
commencement and termination of his ministry exhibit, 
merely in a concentrated form, what ran through his whole 
life. Here then, for the first time, there meets our view a 
moment in which temptation assails him by holding forth 
the possibility of escaping sufferings and death. It was all 
the more concealed and dangerous that it came to him 
through the lips of a dear disciple, who had just solemnly 
25* 



294 MATTHEW XVI. 21-28. 

acknowledged his divine dignity. From the clear and pure 
fountain of Christ's life no unholy thought could flow; but 
inasmuch as he was to be a conqueror victorious over sin, 
it had to draw near, that in every form he might overthrow 
it ; and upon his human nature, which only by degrees 
received within itself the whole fulness of the divine life, 
sin, when it drew near, did make an impression." Instantly, 
however, in this case, on feeling the power of the temptation, 
he recognized the source from which it came, and by the 
harsh word which he used in his reply to Peter, he laid open 
to him the wicked agency or wrong principle and motive by 
which the suggestion had been prompted. 

Nor does he stop with the disclosure of what is wrong 
in the disciple. He lays down, 24-28, more strongly, 
and with words of more fearful and solemn interest, the 
utter self-renunciation which would be required of his 
followers. We have no language which comes up to the 
full force of the idea here set forth. Utterly to deny and 
renounce themselves, — to take up the cross, that appalling 
instrument of degradation and torture and death, and fol- 
low Him — is what he sets before them as their duty now. 
But he rises into a region of thought which makes even 
these sacrifices seem small. " For what," he asks, " shall 
a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world and 
lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give in exchange 
for his soul ? For the Son of man shall come in the glory 
of his Father with his angels ; and then shall lie reward 
every man according to his doing." Here we are lifted 
up amid the retributions of another world. The sacrifices 
made here, the obedience, in self-renunciation and holy 
living, of those who follow him in his conflicts and humilia- 
tion, will be rewarded by him, when in that higher world 
he shall meet them with the ensigns of his greatness, 
in the glory of his Father, and attended by his angels. 

Then, v. 28, by one of those sudden transitions which 
are so common with him, he comes down from the thought 



MATTHEW XVI. 



295 



of his kingdom, in its glorious consummation with ran- 
somed souls above, to the time of its establishment and 
ascendency on earth, i. e. to the time when, with the 
destruction of Jerusalem, the dispersion of the Jews, and 
the overthrow of the whole Jewish polity, the sacrifice 
and the oblation should cease, the old religion no longer 
be recognized in the region where it had so long pre- 
vailed, and the religion of Christ, the Son of man coming 
in his kingdom, should take its place as the only true 
worship among men. 



NOTES. 



The Pharisees also, with the Sadducees, came, and, tempt- 
ing, desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. 

2 He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, 

3 It will be fair weather ; for the sky is red. And in the morn- 
ing, It will be foul weather to-day ; for the sky is red and 
lowering. O ye hypocrites ! ye can discern the face of the 

4 sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times ? A wicked 
and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall 
no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. 
And he left them and departed. 



1. The Pharisees also, with 
the Sadducees] The Pharisees 
overlaid the Law with their tradi- 
tions, and thus made it of none 
effect through their superstitious 
and hypocritical observances. ( See 
xv. 1-20.) The Sadducees by their 
unbelief, retaining the letter of the 
law, but explaining: it away in a 
captious find sceptical spirit, ren- 
dered it of pone effect. These hos- 
tile seo*-e, however, could forget 
their differences lone enough to at- 
tack one whose simple, energetic, 
and life-giving truths laid open 
the emptiness of their pretensions, 
and overthrew alike the religious 
reasonings of both. 2. 

He answered] Mark (viii. 12) 



shows how grieved our Saviour was. 
" Groaning in his spirit, i. e. with a 
deep sigh, he says, ' Why is this 
generation seeking for a sign?'" 
It was not anger, but grief, that 
tempered his indignation. 3. 

O ye hypocrites] These words, 
or rather the one word hypocrites, is 
omitted by Teschendorf. The term 
hypocrites is one which Jesus never 
in any other case applied to the 
Sadducees; and it is not probable 
that it was so applted here. They 
were rather an unbelieving than a 
self-righteous and hypocritical sect. 
He applies the word to the Scribes 
and Pharisees, but not to them. 
4. the sign of the 
prophet Jonas] (See note to xii. 



296 MATTHEW XVI. 

And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had 5 
forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said unto them, Take 6 
heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the 
Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, 7 
It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus 8 
perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason 
ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread ? Do 9 
ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the 
five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up ? neither the 10 
seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye 
took up ? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it n 
not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the 
leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees ? Then under- n 
stood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven 
of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sad- 
ducees. 

When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he 13 
asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son 
of man, am ? And they said, Some say that thou art John 14 
the Baptist ; some, Elias ; and others, Jeremias, or one of the 
prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am ? 15 



39.) If the account of the prophet then to wonder that he repeated 
Jonah were, like the parable of the often the same thought in nearly the 
Good Samaritan or of the Prodigal same words. If, therefore, Ave find 
Son, not a historical narrative, but in the different Evangelists nearly 
a story invented for the purpose of the same instructions given under 
teaching the impossibility of fleeing different circumstances, we are not 
from the requirements of God ; it to suppose that one or the other 
would none the less serve as a sign of the writers has made a mistake, 
of the Saviour's death and resur- but that Jesus, in conformity with 
rection from the dead. Some holy the wants of his hearers, repeated 
man may have been inspired of his instructions again and again. 
God to teach this great truth, in the 9, 10. baskets] In the 
way in which it is there taught, as ninth verse it is cophini, and in 
by a poem or a parable. The lesson the tenth spurides, entirely different 
is none the less true or important words. The same distinction is 
because it is thus taught ; nor does found in Mark. In Dr. Cureton's 
Jesus, in alluding to it in the man- Syriac Gospels, the first word is 
ner he does, express any opinion as translated baskets, the second pan- 
to whether it is historical or not. niers. The distinction is important, 
7. It is because we as indicating two different miracles. 
have taken no bread] How could 13. that I, the Son of 
they have forgotten so soon what man] Observe how often Jesus 
Jesus had told them ? (xv. 16-20.) uses this expression, as if to indi- 
Their dulness in this case shows how cate his intimate relationship to our 
they needed line upon line and pre- humanity. The Son of man, who 
cept upon precept. We are not stood with the Jews for the Mes- 



MATTHEW XVI. 



297 



16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the 

17 Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, 
Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not 

is revealed it unto thee, but nry Father, which is in heaven. And 



siah, though it was not a term exclu- 
sively applied to him. 16. 
Thou art the Christ, the Son 
of the living God] Here is the 
counterpart to our Saviour's own 
expression. He was the Son of 
God as he was the Son of man, 
and thus the mediator between God 
and man. Here is the first and 
only Gospel creed respecting Jesus, 
and it gained his earnest and em- 
phatic approval. Perhaps it is in 
reference to this that St. John more 
than once in his first Epistle uses 
this expression : "Whosoever shall 
confess that Jesus is the Son of 
God, God dwelleth in him, and he 
in God." " He that believeth in 
the Son of God, hath the witness in 
himself." " These things have I 
written unto you that believe in the 
name of the "Son of God; that ye 
may knoAV" that ye have eternal 
life^ and that ye may believe in the 
name of the Son of God." " Who 
is he that overcometh the world, 
but he that believeth that Jesus is 
the Son of God?" It had been 
well for the peace and unity of the 
Church, if the successors of the 
Apostles had been as modest and as 
truthful as they Avere in what they 
required as articles of faith on this 
great subject. There never can be 
unity in the Church of Christ till 
his professed followers consent to 
come back to the simplicity and 
power of his instructions as we find 
them set forth and expounded in 
the Gospels, and in the other writ- 
ings of the New Testament. We 
accept the words of Peter as in- 
dorsed and approved by his Mas- 
ter. They were heard from heaven 
(" This is my beloved Son," Matt, 
iii. 17) as Jesus came up from 
the baptismal waters of the Jordan, 
and the heavens were opened to 
him. They were repeated again 
from heaven on the Mountain of 
Transfiguration. (Matthew xvii. 5.) 
They are dwelt upon with affecting 



earnestness by St. John, both in his 
Gospel and his Epistles. At what 
was perhaps originally the close of 
his Gospel (John xx. 31) he says : 
" But these are written, that ye 
might believe that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God; and that 
believing ye might have life through ' 
his name." Why can we not be 
content with this? Why must we 
go beneath it with any poor meta- 
physical analysis of ours to deter- 
mine precisely what is meant by 
these great words, and impose our 
definition on others as an article of 
faith, without assent to which they 
cannot be admitted into the Church 
of Christ, but must, in the blasphe- 
mous words of the Athanasian creed, 
" without doubt perish everlast- 
ingly." It is a presumptuous and 
awful thing for men to impose con- 
ditions which Christ never imposed, 
and to erect barriers which were 
never authorized by him in the way 
of admission to his Church. 

17. Simon Bar-jona] Simon, 
son of Jonas. " It is exceedingly 
probable that this is intended to 
form a contrast to the foregoing 
Jesus, Son of God. Simon denotes 
here, as does Jesus, the human per- 
sonality of the individual ; son of 
Jonas is probably used here in a 
figurative sense. Primarily it is 
indeed a genealogical designation 
(John i. 42, xxi. 16, 17 ); but as 
Hebrew names generally are de-' 
scriptive, Christ here looks to the 
import of the name. Perhaps he 
referred it to Jona, a dove ; and in 
that case this meaning would arise, 
' Thou, Simon, art a child of the 
Spirit (alluding to the Holy Spirit 
under the svmbol of a dove) : God, 
the Father" of Spirits (Heb. xii. 9), 
hath revealed himself to thee.' 
Where God reveals himself there is 
formed a spiritual man." Olshau- 
sen. flesh and blood] 

No man, no merely human faculties, 
have revealed this to you; " only 






298 



MATTHEW XVI. 



I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter ; and upon this rock I 
will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom 19 
of Heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall 
be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples, that they 20 



the divine can teach us to know 
the divine." 18. Thou art 

Peter [a rock] ; and upon this 
.rock I will build my church] 

From the earliest days of our relig- 
ion, the Christian Church or com- 
munity of believers has been repre- 
sented' as a building. The Greek 
word ecdesia, like its English syno- 
nyme the church, means either the 
community of worshippers, or the 
place in which they meet for wor- 
ship. The word synagogue, in its 
Greek form, is applied either to the 
congregation or to the building in 
which they assemble. The Greek 
word eKKkrjiria, or church, is seldom 
used in the New Testament to de- 
note a building set apart for relig- 
ious purposes. The Christians at 
that time had no such buildings. 
But in one case at least the place of 
worship is called the church (1 Tim. 
iii. 15): "in the house of God, 
which is the church of the living 
God." The Church itself, the com- 
munity of believers, is constantly 
represented as a building, and its 
members are represented as living 
stones of which it is built, or as 
foundations or pillars on which it 
rests. " Ye ai-e God's building." 
(1 Cor. iii. 9.) " Ye are the temple 
of the living God." (2 Cor.vi. 16.) 
" Ye also, as living stones, are built 
up a spiritual house." (1 Peter ii. 
5.) " And are built upon the 
foundation of the Apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being 
the chief corner-stone, in whom all 
the building, fitly framed together, 
groweth unto a "holy temple in the 
Lord." (Eph. ii. 20,21.) " And the 
wall of the city had twelve founda- 
tions, and in them the names of the 
twelve Apostles of the Lamb." 
(Rev. xxi. 14.) If we familiarize 
ourselves with these forms of 



speech, the words of Jesus in the 
passage before us will be found 
to harmonize with them easily, 
and to express, though by a more 
pointed and individual applica- 
tion, no more than Paul meant 
when he spoke of being " built on 
the foundation of the Apostles and 
prophets," or than the author of the 
Apocalypse meant when he spoke 
of the Twelve Apostles as the 
twelve foundations of the wall of 
the new Jerusalem. the gates 

of hell] gates of death, — the 
power of the kingdom of death. 
An Oriental form of speech still 
used when we speak of the Turkish 
power as "the Ottoman Porte." 
19. And I will give 
unto thee the keys of the 
kingdom of Heaven] " The 
Jews familiarly used the terms' to 
bind ' and ' to loose ' metaphorically, 
in the sense of ' to forbid ' and ' to 
permit.' They used them concern- 
ing the teachers of their Law, who 
were supposed capable of explain- 
ing its requirements, — what it for- 
bade and what it permitted. When 
Jesus says, ' I will give you the 
keys of the kingdom of Heaven,' his 
meaning is, I will appoint you a min- 
ister of my religion, to make known 
to men the terms on which they 
may enter the kingdom of Heaven. 
What follows is an amplification of 
this idea : — I appoint you a teacher 
and expositor of my religion, to 
declare to men its requirements, 
what it forbids and permits; and, 
be assured that what is thus forbid- 
den and permitted by you is for- 
bidden and permitted by God. It 
is of the authority of Peter as a 
minister of his religion that Jesus 
speaks, and not of any power to be 
exercised according to his discretion 
as an individual." Norton. 



MATTHEW XVI. 



299 



21 should tell no man that he was Jesus, the Christ. From 

that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how 
that lie must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the 
elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be 

22 raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began 



20. that they should tell no 
man that he is the Christ ] The 
disciples now received him as the 
Messiah ; but the time had not yet 
come when he was publicly to be 
declared and recognized as such. 
When that time should come, his 
death would be near at hand. 

21. From that time forth] 
The altered tone of our Saviour's 
communications to his disciple?, 
" from that time form," is very 
observable. The confession of faith 
in him as the Messiah, which had 
been made by Peter, seems to have 
quickened his sympathy for them, 
and to have increased his confidence 
in them. A new era in his inter- 
course with them had arrived. 
Hitherto he has alluded mysteri- 
ously to his death. But now, as in 
the strong language of Peter, they 
have expres-ed their belief in him as 
the Christ, the Son of the living 
<i id, he sees that the time has 
come when he must teach them as 
plainly as possible in regard to the 
true nature of his mission. Thus 
he speaks of his humiliation and 
death here, and shows these things 
in connection with his exaltation in 
the next chapter. He wished them 
to understand what lay before him, 
and so to understand it in its rela- 
tion to a true spiritual greatness 
that they might not be permanently 
depressel and discouraged by it. 
They receive his communications at 
first like men who have been stun- 
ned by some dreadful, and, there- 
fore, incredible disclosure. That 
he, the Son of God, the long-ex- 
pected Messiah, who was to over- 
come and rule the world, should die 
a violent and shameful death, was 
something roo astounding to be be- 
lieve!, or even understood. And 
that further communication, 
and be raised again on the 
third day] which to us uow throws 



such a halo over the cross and the 
tomb, was even more unintelligible to 
them. After the Transfiguration, it is 
said (Mark ix. 10), " And they kept 
that saying with themselves, ques- 
tioning with one another what the 
rising from the dead should mean." 
Again, in reference to the same 
subject, it is said (Mark ix. 32), "But 
they understood not that saying, 
and were afraid to ask him."" No 
plainer language than his could be 
used;but the idea itself,in its relation 
to him, was one which they could 
not take in; and it was not till after 
his resurrection that his plainest in- 
structions respecting his death could 
be understood. The thought was 
too strange and repulsive to be ac- 
cepted by them. Their first feel- 
ing, therefore, when the words were 
urged and pressed upon them, was 
one of astonishment and incredu- 
lity. It seemed to them that their 
Master, in a moment of depression 
and discouragement, had given way 
to unreasonable apprehensions and 
forebodings. This supposition alone 
explains the conduct and the lan- 
guage of Peter. 22. And 
Peter took him, and hegaii to 
rebuke him] For the moment, 
Peter assumed the attitude of a 
superior. Not in anger, but with a 
condescension of sympathy, such as 
a loving child may exercise towards 
a suffering parent, or a faithful ser- 
vant towards an unfortunate and 
discouraged master, he laid his 
hand [soothingly] upon him, and 
said, in opposition to the disheart- 
ening words which Jesus had just 
spoken, " God be gracious to you, 
Lord: this shall not happen to you.'' 
The word (7riTifxa>v, which is trans- 
lated rebuke, does not involve the 
idea of personal anger or of moral 
disapprobation. Thus, Jesus " re- 
buked the wind and the sea " (Matt. 
viii. 26); i. e. he said to them, 



300 



MATTHEW XVI. 



to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord ; this shall 
not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get 23 
thee behind me, Satan ; thou art an offence unto me ; for thou 
savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of 

men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will 24 

come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and 



"Peace, be still." (Mark iv. 39.) 
The word is used to express an ear- 
nest remonstrance against what one 
is doing, or what he might be in- 
clined to do. " And Jesus charged 
(it is the same word) them not to 
make him known" (Matt. xii. 16); 
i. e. he remonstrated with them 
against what he saw was their wish 
and purpose to make him known. 
So Peter here remonstrated with 
Jesus against (what seemed to 
him) the desponding and humiliat- 
ing view which he had jxist given 
of his ministry. But he 

turned and said unto Peter] 
The language in Mark (viii. 33) is 
more graphic : " When he had 
turned about, and looked on his 
disciples, he rehuked Peter." He 
first looked at his disciples. He saw 
how they were affected by this act 
of patronizing familiarity and re- 
monstrance on the part of Peter, 
and that they probably were all 
moved by the same unworthy view 
of his words which Peter had taken. 
He may also himself have sympa- 
thized with them, so far as to feel a 
momentary shudder at the thought 
of that which afterwards, at its near 
approach, brought upon him such 
an agony of grief. And, therefore, 
to regain instantly his ascendency 
over them, and on the same instant 
to shake off the thought which had 
come to him as the last and sharp- 
est temptation in the wilderness, he 
uttered the strong words, 
Get thee behind me, Satan] 
The word sedan means adversary or 
seducer, and is undoubtedly applied 
here to Peter, who for the' moment 
had put himself in opposition to his 
Master, and would se<hice and draw 
him away from the path of humili- 
ation and sorrow which he had 
chosen. for thou savor- 

est not the things that be of 



God, but the things that be 
of men] savorest, to have the mind 
and heart fixed upon. Your mind 
is fixed on things earthly and 
human, not on those which are 
heavenly and divine. Therefore, 
you cannot take in the true mean- 
ing of my words. We must remem- 
ber, that all this while the disciples 
are as a school, exercised and dis- 
ciplined under the various train- 
ing of their Master. After this pri- 
vate remonstrance with Peter, and 
through him with his companions, 
in order to make a still deeper im- 
pression upon them, he called the 
people to him (Mark viii. 34), and 
in their presence laid down still 
more strongly the doctrine of self- 
denial and self-sacrifice, which he 
has already taught (Matt. x. 37-39) 
with such distinctness and force. 
24, 25. These two verses 
are but carrying out, in its applica- 
tion to all his followers, the great 
idea Avhich he was to exemplify in 
his life and death, and which he 
has just now severely remonstrated 
with Peter for refusing to accept. 
It is impossible for us to understand 
how appalling to the Jews this 
image of the cross must bave been. 
It was not their mode of punish- 
ment. It. was introduced by the 
Komans as an instrument of cruelty 
and oppression, too shameful and 
too dreadful to be used among their 
own citizens, and to be inflicted on 
the lowest criminals and strangers. 
" AVe can hardly feel," says Mr. 
Norton, " the impression which it 
must have made upon those to 
whom the horrible torture of cruci- 
fixion, as inflicted upon the most 
wretched outcasts of society, was 
not an uncommon spectacle." It 
was connected in their mind with 
all that was hateful and unjust in 
a foreign domination ; and nothing 



MATTHEW XVI. 



301 



25 follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it ; and 

26 whosoever will lose his life, for my sake, shall find it. For 
what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and 



could be more abhorrent to all their 
most cherished convictions than 
that their Messiah, who was to 
break every yoke and free them 
from foreign rule, should himself be 
subjected to this vilest and most 
painful of deaths, and that he 
should hold up this to his followers 
as what they also must be ready to 
endure in their devotion to him. 
Nothing shows more powerfully the 
personal and moral ascendency of 
Jesus over those around him, than 
the fact that, with such images of 
reward as this, he could still bind 
them to him. 25. Whoso- 

ever will save his life] We 
have already (Matt. x. 39) com- 
mented on this passage. The words 
are repeated here with a slight 
alteration, and bearing with a 
mighty pressure on what he has 
already foretold respecting his own 
fate. The meaning of the word 
"ty v xh, which is translated life here, 
and soul in the next verse, is to be 
borne in mind. There is in the 
Greek, as also in the Syriac, a nice 
distinction which is lost in our Eng- 
lish version. " Whosoever may 
wish [iav tfe'Afl] to save his life 
[soul] shall lose it; and whosoever 
will lose his life [ soul ] for my sake 
shall find it." It is not, he who may 
ivish to lose his life for his sake : he 
does not require that of us. He 
only requires that Ave shall not 
wish to save it at the expense of 
what is better than life. He has 
spoken of the cross. He now speaks 
of the life which may be lost upon 
it; but in the same sentence uses 
the same word to designate the life 
which makes that earthly, mortal 
life of no account. 26. 

For what is a man profited] 
Literally, " What shall a man .be 
profited," &c. There are those who 
translate psyche here by the word 
life, because it is the same word 
that is so rendered in the previous 
verse. But this does not convey the 
26 



true meaning so well as our com- 
mon version. We must think of 
him who spoke, and who by his 
spiritual perceptions reaching into 
higher worlds, saw the soul saved 
by that which seemed to destroy it, 
and lost by that which to mortal 
eyes seemed to save it. And when 
the soul is lost everything is lost ; 
for " what shall a man be profited 
if he gain the whole world and lose 
his own soul ? or Avhat shall a man 
give in exchange for his soul?" 
There is no more impressive and 
awful passage in the sacred writ- 
ings, and few which are more per- 
fectly rendered in our English ver- 
sion. Verbal comments upon it are 
poor and small. They who would 
force it into a proof-text for the 
doctrine of everlasting damnation, 
and they who would explain it away 
as referring to nothing beyond this 
world, show themselves alike insen- 
sible to its power. Its solemn and 
dreadful appeal should come home 
to every soul that is in danger of 
wasting its immortal energies on 
the things of time, or of giving to 
them more of its affections than is 
consistent with its highest good. 
A very striking illustration of the 
manner in which a man may ruin 
his soul in this world, and have no 
suspicion of the work of death 
which is going on within the fair 
and prosperous exterior of his life, 
is given by Archbishop Whately in 
his Annotations on Lord Bacon's 
Essays. " Most persons," he says, 
"know that every butterfly (the 
Greek name for which, it is re- 
markable, signifies the same also as 
the soul, — psyche) comes from a 
grub, or caterpillar ; in the lan- 
guage of naturalists, called a larva. 
The last name (which signifies 
literally a mask) was introduced by 
Linnaeus, because the caterpillar 
is a kind of outer covering, or dis- 
guise of the future butterfly within. 
For it has been ascertained by 



302 



MATTHEW XVI. 



lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for 
his soul ? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his 27 



curious mici-oscopic examination, 
that a distinct butterfly, only unde- 
veloped and not full grown, is con- 
tained within the body of the cater- 
pillar; that this latter has its own 
organs of digestion, respiration, &c, 
suitable to its larva life, quite dis- 
tinct from, and independent of, the 
future butterfly which it encloses. 
When the proper period arrives, and 
the life of the insect, in this its first 
stage, is to close, it becomes what 
is called a pupa, enclosed in a crys- 
alis or cocoon (often composed' of 
silk, as is that of the silk-worm 
which supplies us that important 
article), and lies torpid for a time 
within its natural coffin, from which 
it issues, at the proper period, as a 
perfect butterfly. But sometimes 
this process is marred. There is a 
numerous tribe of insects, well 
known to naturalists, called ich- 
neumon-flies, which in their larva 
state are parasitical ; that is, in- 
habit and feed on other larvae. The 
ichneumon-fly, being provided with 
a long, sharp sting, which is in fact 
an ovipositor (egg-layer), pierces 
with this the body of a caterpillar 
in several places, and deposits her 
eggs, which are there hatched, and 
feed as grubs (larvae) on the inward 
parts of their victim. A most won- 
derful circumstance connected with 
this process is, that a caterpillar 
that has been thus attacked goes 
on feeding, and apparently thriving 
quite as well, during the whole of 
its larva-life, as those that have 
escaped. For, by a wonderful pro- 
vision of instinct, the ichneumon- 
grubs within do not injure any of 
the organs of the larva, but feed 
only on the future butterfly enclosed 
within it. And consequently, it is 
hardly possible to distinguish a 
caterpillar which has these enemies 
within it from those that are un- 
touched. But when the period ar- 
rives for the close of the larva-life, 
the difference appears. You may 
often observe the common cabbage 
caterpillars retiring, to undergo 
their change, to some sheltered 
spot, — such as the walls of a sum- 



mer-house ; and some of them — 
those that have escaped the para- 
sites (the other grubs which are 
injured sometimes do the same) 
— assuming the pupa-state, from 
which they emerge, butterflies. Of 
the unfortunate caterpillar that has 
been preyed upon, nothing remains 
but an empty skin. The hidden 
butterfly has been secretly con- 
sumed. Now is there not some- 
thing analogous to this wonderful 
phenomenon in the condition of 
some of our race ? May not a man 
have a kind of secret enemy with- 
in his own bosom, destroying his 
soul, psyche, — though without in- 
terfering with his well-being during 
the present stage of his existence ; 
and whose presence may never be 
detected till the time arrives when 
the last great change should take 
place?" 27. For the Son 

of man shall come] For this 
world is not all. This mortal life 
is nothing compared with that 
which rises over it. It is worthy of 
notice how every sentence here, in 
verses 25, 26, 27, is introduced by 
a for, each one taking us up yet 
farther into the height of its sub- 
lime argument. " If any one wishes 
to come after me, let him deny him- 
self, and take up his cross and fol- 
low me;" "for he who wishes to 
save his life shall lose it ; " and 
then everything is gone, "for what 
shall a man be profited, if he gain 
the whole world, and lose his own 
soul? " "For the Son of man shall 
come in the glory of his Father, 
with his angels, and then shall he 
reward every man according to 
his works." "What a contrast this 
closing picture of the Son of man 
coming in the glory of his Father, 
with that in verse 21, of his suffer- 
ing and dying at the hands of wick- 
ed men ! " How are we lifted up by 
his words above all earthly con- 
siderations of gain or loss, as we 
see him rising through the same 
path of humiliation and suffering 
and death, which he assigns to his 
followers, and coming with his an- 
gels to reward every man accoi;!- 



MATTHEW XVI. 



303 



Father, with his angels ; and then he shall reward every man 
28 according to his works. Verily I say unto you, there be some 



ing to his works ! accord- 

ing to his works] Literally, 
according to his duiny. Works, per- 
haps, give us too superficial an idea 
of the doing or working which begins 
in the soul of a man, — his inmost 
life, — and reaches out through all 
his deeds. 28. there 

be some standing here which 
shall not taste of death, till] 
Thus far every sentence in this dis- 
course has been closely and logically 
connected with that which went be- 
fore. We have been taken through 
the scene of our probation here, to 
that of our retribution hereafter. 
But in this sentence there is a sud- 
den, and apparently abrupt change 
from one great subject to another. 
These apparently violent transitions 
are not uncommon in our Saviour's 
discourses. But if we could place 
ourselves at his point of vision, we 
should see how natural and easy 
the transition is. The central prin- 
ciples of a great thought connect 
together topics which, to a super- 
ficial eye, seem to have no relation 
to one another. In order to under- 
stand the transition, we must not 
only learn, but make ourselves fa- 
miliar with, the different applica- 
tions of the expression, the kingdom 
of Heaven, and of the similar ex- 
pression, the coming of the Son of 
man. The kingdom of Heaven is 
the religion of Jesus in the indi- 
vidual soul, or in the community of 
believers called the Church, — first 
on earth, and then in the heavens. 
When the kingdom of Heaven, or the 
religion of Jesus, with its divine 
truths and agencies, comes to any 
one, and is received by him, it is to 
him the coming of the Son of man 
in his kingdom. When the religion 
of Jesus, or the kingdom of God, 
finds its more perfect consummation 
in him on his leaving this world and 
entering into a higher condition of 
being, it is to him the coming of 
the Son of man in the glory of his 
Father with his angels, who are 
then first revealed to his spiritual 



perceptions. So the kingdom of 
Heaven, or the religion of Jesus, 
may be viewed, on a larger scale, 
in its relation to the human family. 
When it took the place of the old 
Mosaic dispensation, as it did at the 
destruction of Jerusalem and the 
dispersion of the Jews, and was left 
free to unfold its powers and estab- 
lish itself in the earth, that was, in 
a peculiar sense, the coming of the 
Son of man in his kingdom, to the 
earth. And when, through succes- 
sive ages, the whole work of re- 
demption is accomplished, and the 
whole family of man are grouped 
together in thought, and placed 
before the eye as finishing their 
earthly course, and entering on a 
further stage of existence, then, in 
reference to them, the Son of man 
is said to come in the glory of his 
Father, and all the holy angels 
with him. Whether by his coming 
we are to understand his personal 
presence in these different ways, or 
only that he should be present in 
his religion, his spirit, and his teach- 
ings, which should be, like his dis- 
ciples, his representatives among 
men, is not distinctly taught. We 
believe that he meant to intimate 
his actual and personal presence in 
his religion and his Church with his 
followers on earth and in Heaven. 
We know too little of the power 
which a spiritual being like Christ 
may have of diffusing and extend- 
ing his personal and conscious pres- 
ence, to oppose these views by ob- 
jections of this sort, which carry 
no reasonable weight with them. 
Now, if it be not presumptuous in 
us so to speak, drawing our infer- 
ences not from any data of ours, 
but from the forms of expression 
which he has used, we may sup- 
pose that the mind of Jesus, equally 
at home in all these developments 
of his religion, or different forms of 
his coming, connects them all to- 
gether as parts of one great plan, 
and passes easily from one to an- 
other. In asking what a man could 



304 



MATTHEW XVI. 



standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the 
Son of man coming in his kingdom. 



give in exchange for his soul, he 
follows him beyond this mortal life, 
and speaks of meeting him there to 
reward him according to his works. 
Then pausing a little, and thinking 
of the time when the Jewish nation 
shall be dispersed, their city and 
altars overthrown, and his own re- 
ligion take the place of the ancient 
worship ; and seeing around him 
some who shall outlive the bloody 
changes by which his kingdom is 
thus to be established on the earth, 
he, in verse 28, gives utterance to 
this other thought, " Verily I say 
unto you, There be some standing 
here 'who shall not taste of death, 



till they see the Son of man coming 
[not in the glory of his Father with 
his angels, but] in his kingdom." 
This is the same coming of the Son 
of man as that referred to in Matt. 
x. 23. In these sudden transitions 
from one theme to another, we must 
remember that the Evangelists do 
not give all the words that Jesus 
spoke, but only the salient points, 
often leaving the connecting and 
explanatory clauses and events 
wholly out of sight. The events 
related in this chapter may have 
extended through several weeks, 
and must have occupied a number 
of days. 



MATTHEW XVII. 1-9. 305 



CHAPTER XVII. 

1-9. — The Transfiguration. 

There has been much discussion in regard to the place 
where this remarkable event occurred. Traditions reach- 
ing back nearly to the middle of the fourth century have 
fixed on Mount Tabor as the spot. It is thus referred 
to before the end of the fourth century by Cyril of Jeru- 
salem, and by St. Jerome who resided in Palestine. A 
little more than two hundred years later, mention is made of 
it by Antoninus. Martyr speaks of three churches erected on 
Mount Tabor, corresponding to the three tabernacles which 
Peter proposed to erect. But, as Dr. Robinson in his 
Biblical Researches, Vol. III. pp. 220, 221, has shown, 
from an early date, and down to the time of Josephus, the 
summit of Mount Tabor was occupied by a fortified city. 
It could not therefore have been the " high mountain " 
here mentioned by the Evangelists. Dr. Robinson sup- 
poses that the " Mount of Transfiguration is rather to be 
sought somewhere around the northern part of the lake, 
not very far from Caisarea Philippi, where there are cer- 
tainly mountains enough." 

The last locality that has been mentioned in the Gospel 
narrative, xvi. 13, is Coesarea Philippi. Jesus had gone 
up from Bethsaida at the northeast corner of the lake 
to the village of Coesarea, which was at the eastern source 
of the Jordan, and near the foot of Mount Hermon. Six 
days after the conversation recorded as having taken place 
in that locality, occurred the scene of the Transfiguration. 
Those few days may have been spent by Jesus partly 
in the villages instructing the people and healing their 
sick, and partly in private and confidential intercourse 
26* 



306 MATTHEW XVII. 1-9. 

with his disciples amid the solitudes of the mountains. 
This was the extreme northern limit of his ministry. At 
length, the time having now come when he must set his 
face for the last time towards Jerusalem, wishing to make 
on the minds of the leading disciples an impression which 
could never be effaced, and seeking also, as he often did 
before his heaviest trials, for the inward supports which 
came from retirement and prayer, he took Peter and 
James and John, and went up into a high mountain to 
pray. May not this mountain have been Mount Hermon ? 
Stanley, in his Sinai and Palestine, pp. 391, 392, says: "It 
is impossible to look up from the plain to the towering 
peaks of Hermon, almost the only mountain which de- 
serves the name in Palestine, and one of whose ancient 
titles was derived from this circumstance, and not be 
struck with its appropriateness to the scene. That magnifi- 
cent height — mingling with all the views of Northern 
Palestine from Shechem upwards — though often alluded 
to as the northern barrier of the Holy Land, is connected 
with no historical event in the Old or New Testament. 
Yet this fact of its rising high above all the other hills 
of Palestine, and of its setting the last limit to the wander- 
ings of Him who was sent only to the lost sheep of the 
house of Israel, falls in with the supposition which the 
words inevitably force upon us. High up on its southern 
slopes there must be many a point where the disciples 
could be taken ' apart by themselves.' Even the transient 
comparison of the celestial splendor with the snow, where 
alone it could be seen in Palestine, should not, perhaps, 
be wholly overlooked. At any rate, the remote heights 
above the sources of the Jordan witnessed the moment, 
when, his work in his own peculiar sphere being ended, 
he set his face for the last time ' to go up to Jerusalem.' " 

But how are we to interpret the account of the Trans- 
figuration itself? Dr. Furness entitles it, "The Dream 
of Peter." In his History of Jesus, p. 155, he supposes 



MATTHEW XVII. 1-9. 307 

that Peter, after a time of great mental excitement, falling 
asleep, " began to dream ; and in the visions of his sleep, 
his eyes having closed, perhaps, while fixed on the venerated 
form of his Master, and his mind being filled with the idea 
of the Messiah's glory, he still saw Jesus ; but now all 
arrayed in robes of dazzling whiteness, in all that ex- 
ternal glory associated with the person of the Messiah. 
And there appeared also to Peter, in his dream, two 
others, who, he thought, were Moses and Elias ; and they 
conversed with Jesus about what was to take place, — that 
mysterious decease at Jerusalem. While he was thus dream- 
ing, a cloud came up, and it thundered ; and the sound, 
startling the dreamer from his sleep, was instantly con- 
nected, as is not uncommon in dreams, with an articulate 
voice," &c, &c. 

Dr. Palfrey regards it rather as a visionary repre- 
sentation given for the encouragement of the disciples. In 
his relation between Judaism and Christianity, pp. 92, 93, 
he says : " It was fit that they should be instructed and 
reawakened by a glorious vision, presenting to them their 
Master, not with the environments of regal pomp, but as 
the equal associate of the venerated ancient teachers of 
their faith. And such being the case, I understand further, 
that the presence of Moses and Elijah was visionary, and 
not real ; that it was not Moses and Elijah actually con- 
versing with Jesus that the Apostles saw, but that a vision 
of such a scene was presented to their view." 

Neander, in his Life of Jesus, though he rather inclines 
to regard the whole as an objective historical event, makes 
a supposition which embraces the substance of these two 
views. The disciples, he supposes, were deeply impressed 
by the prayer of Jesus. " His countenance beamed with 
radiance, and he appeared to them glorified and trans- 
figured with celestial light. At last, worn out with fatigue, 
they fell asleep ; and the impressions of the Saviour's prayer 
and of their conversation with him were reflected in a vision 



308 MATTHEW XVII. 1-9. 

thus : Beside him, who was the end of the Law and the 
Prophets, appeared Moses and Elias in celestial splen- 
dor ; for the glory that streamed forth from him was 
reflected back upon the Law, and the Prophets foretold 
the fate that awaited him at Jerusalem. In the mean 
time they awoke, and, in a half-waking condition, saw 
and heard what followed." "Still," he adds, "the diffi- 
culty remains, that the phenomena, if simply psychological, 
should have appeared to all the three Apostles precisely 
in the same form. It is, perhaps, not improbable, that 
the account came from the lips of Peter, who is the promi- 
nent figure in the narrative." 

The more carefully we examine the narratives of the 
different Evangelists, the greater does the difficulty in the 
way of these views appear. In the first place, the ac- 
count is given by each of the three Evangelists with no 
word to indicate that it is not a narrative of real events. 
Jesus, with his three most intimate disciples, went up 
into a high mountain by themselves to pray. And while 
praying he was transfigured before them. His counte- 
nance was changed, shining as the sun, and his garments 
were white as the light, or, as Mark says, " exceeding 
white, like snow, so as no fuller on earth could whiten 
them." And Luke speaks of their overpowering bright- 
ness as of lightning flashes. And behold there were two 
men talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared 
to them in glory, and who spake of his departure which 
he was to accomplish at Jerusalem. Peter and those who 
were with him had been — not were, as in our translation 
— weighed down with sleep. But when they were fully 
awake (Luke ix. 32) they saw his glory, and the two 
men that were standing with him. And as they the 
two men — were departing from him, Peter, in his fear 
not knowing what to say, said, " Lord, it is good for us 
to be here ; let us make here three tabernacles, one for 
thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." While he was 



MATTHEW XVII. 1 - 9. 309 

yet speaking, a shining cloud ; or, according to Griesbach's 
reading, a cloud of light overshadowed them. They were 
filled with awe as they entered it. And there came from 
it a voice, saying, " This is my beloved Son, in whom 
I am well pleased ; hear ye him." And when the dis- 
ciples heard it, they fell upon their faces and were ex- 
ceedingly afraid. Then Jesus came and touched them, 
and said, " Rise, be not afraid," when they raised their 
eyes, and saw Jesus alone. And as they were going 
down from the mountain, Jesus charged them saying, " Tell 
what you have seen to no one, till the Son of man has risen 
from the dead." "And they kept it to themselves (Mark 
ix. 10), reasoning together what the rising from the dead was." 
The particulars of the transaction are given with minute- 
ness and precision. It could not have appeared to one 
only, for " Peter and they who were with him " (Luke 
ix. 32) saw his glory and the two men that were stand- 
ing with him." " And when the disciples " (not one of 
them) " heard," &c. they fell on their face. Nor could it 
have been a dream ; for, apart from the improbability 
of the same dream occurring to them all, Luke says ex- 
pressly, that, though they had been heavy with sleep, they 
now when fully awake saw his glory, &c. Neither could 
it have been merely a vision ; for they not only saw Moses 
and Elijah, but also heard what they said, and the sub- 
ject of their conversation is reported to us : " They spake 
of his departure," &c. What the disciples heard from the 
cloud is also precisely reported. Besides, if the whole 
matter had been only a dream, or a scene only subjec- 
tively present to their minds, if " the presence of Moses 
and Elias was visionary and not real," why should it 
occupy the conspicuous and significant place it does in 
three of the Gospels ? Still more, if " only a vision of 
such a scene was presented to their view, how was it 
possible that Jesus could attach so much importance to it 
as he did in charging the disciples to tell no one of it 






310 MATTHEW XVII. 1-9. 

till after he had risen from the dead? Among the in- 
cidental indications of truthfulness in the narratives them- 
selves, are the words in Mark, — " they reasoned among 
themselves what the rising from the dead should mean." 
How natural that they should thus reason together, and 
yet who, writing long after the event, and when the resur- 
rection from the dead had become a common idea, could 
have thought to mention it unless it were a fact? 

The only objection to receiving these accounts as faithful 
historical narratives arises from the character of the facts 
themselves. They do not fall within the sphere of our 
common thought and experience. But one great object 
of Christ's coming into the world was to enlarge the sphere 
of our conceptions, to free us from the narrow, blinding, 
and despotic dominion of the senses, and open to us a 
glimpse at least of the great and spiritual realities by 
which we are environed. The disciples could not be 
reconciled to the idea of a suffering and crucified Messiah. 
They were perplexed and filled with grief by what Jesus 
had told them of his approaching death. Here for a 
moment the chosen three were allowed, with their quick- 
ened perceptions, to look through the veil, to see the 
glorified forms of two persons who had passed from the 
earth centuries before, and to hear them talk with Jesus 
of his departure which he was about to accomplish at 
Jerusalem. And although in their troubled and bewil- 
dered apprehension they did not then understand fully 
the import of what they saw and heard, yet afterwards 
they remembered it with a new perception of its signifi- 
cance, and recorded it for the instruction of those who 
should come after them. (See John i. 14, 2 Peter i. 
16-18.) For once, as an emblem to all times, of the 
Divine glory in which he lived, the spirit of Jesus shone 
through and irradiated its mortal covering, lighting up 
his countenance till it was like the sun, and his very 
garments were, like the lightning, of a dazzling bright- 



MATTHEW XVII. 1-9. 311 

ness, so as no fuller on earth could whiten them. In asso- 
ciating with him Moses and Elijah in their glorified forms, 
the Transfiguration furnishes a connecting link between 
two worlds. By these visible images of the departed it 
helps us in our conceptions of a spiritual and immortal 
condition, and enables us in our thought to people with 
bright and living forms the otherwise void and shadowy 
regions of the dead. Not only is Christ transfigured, and 
Moses and Elijah made visible, but a whole world of 
spiritual thought and life is revealed as filled, not merely 
with the one infinite intelligence, but with the tender 
sympathies and affections which drew those ancient bene- 
factors of mankind to talk with Jesus when the time of 
his heaviest sorrows was at hand. 

The place which this event holds in the Gospel narra- 
tive is not without its significance. Jesus had been speak- 
ing of his approaching death and of the entire self-renuncia- 
tion which he required of his followers. They could not 
understand him. He led them away therefore by them- 
selves. Leaving the populous places about Csesarea Philip- 
pi, he probably took them into the mountain solitudes, and 
during a period of six days was imparting to them there 
instructions, of which no record has come down to us. 
Then, as a teacher sometimes does with the most ad- 
vanced of his class, he chose out three of his disciples 
to impress on them a lesson which they alone were at 
all prepared to receive. He leads them up into a high 
mountain, and, while he is praying, his countenance glows 
with a celestial radiance, spirits of just men made per- 
fect stand by him, and a voice is heard speaking to them 
from heaven. They did not fully understand it then, but 
after his death and resurrection from the dead had laid 
open to them its meaning, they publish their account of 
it to enrich forever the minds of Christian believers. 

" The design of this miracle," says Mr. Norton, " appears 
to have been, — 1. By a scene which should make the most 



312 MATTHEW XVII. 10-13. 

powerful impression on the senses and the imagination, — 
a ' sign from heaven ' such as the Pharisees had demanded, 
— to produce in the minds of the three leading Apostles 
who were present with Jesus the strongest conviction of 
his Divine mission, and to prepare them, as far as possible, 
for the overwhelming disappointment of their cherished 
hopes in his approaching death; 2. To show them that 
a close relation existed between himself and those earlier 
messengers of God Avhom they held in peculiar reverence, 
Moses, the founder, and Elijah, the restorer of their an- 
cient religion, who had prepared the way for him who 
* came not to annul the law and the prophets, but to per- 
fect;' 3. To give the disciples direct and palpable evi- 
dence of the reality of a future life." 

10-13. — The Coming oe Elijah. 

" It would," says Lightfoot in his note on this passage, 
" be an infinite task to produce all the passages out of 
the Jewish writings, which one might, concerning the ex- 
pected coming of Elias." The following, given here in a 
condensed form, is among the passages quoted by Light- 
foot from the Jewish writers. " God shall restore the 
soul of Elias, which ascended of old into heaven, into 
a created body like to his former body, and shall send 
him to Israel before the day of judgment, and he shall 
admonish both the fathers and the children together, to 
turn to God." It was the expectation of the Jews that 
at the coming of the Messiah there should be a resurrec- 
tion from the dead, and that Elias was to come before 
the resurrection. When Jesus, therefore, tells the dis- 
ciples to say nothing about what they had seen till he 
had risen from the dead, they immediately in their minds 
connect this rising from the dead with the expected resur- 
rection, and ask, If this appearance of Elias is all, and we 
are not permitted to speak of it till after the resurrection, 



MATTHEW XVII. 24-27. 313 

how is it that the Scribes say that Elias must come first, 
i. e. before the resurrection ? Jesus replies, nearly in 
the words of MaL iv. 6, ' ; Elias is coming, and will re- 
store all things," or put all things in order. He merely 
repeats this passage which the Jewish teachers were ac- 
customed to use, to show, in reply to the disciples' ques- 
tion, why Elijah was expected first. Then he goes on 
in his own language to give his own view, which is, 
that the prophecy is already accomplished, that Elias has 
already come, and that the Jewish teachers who had made 
such account of his coming did not recognize him while 
he was with them, but did to him what they chose, and 
that in like manner the Messiah, the Son of man, would 
aho suffer from them. u Then understood they that he 
spake of John the Baptist." Luke (i. 17) shows in what 
sense Elias was to come : " And he (John) shall go before 
him in the spirit and power of Elias." 

24-27. — The Tribute-Money and the Fish. 

The tribute-money was not paid to the Roman govern- 
ment, but for the Jewish and temple worship. (See Ex. 
xxx. 13, 2 Kings xii. 4, 2 Chron. xxiv. 6, 9.) Jesus in 
his conversation with Peter refers to his peculiar position 
as the Son of God, so as to impress it on the minds of 
his disciples. ''It was necessary for him," says Mr. 
Norton, " to direct their thoughts to the fact of his and 
their extraordinary relation to God, and the peculiarity 
in his manner of doing it upon this occasion would tend 
to make a deeper impression on their minds than a simple 
declaration of the truth might have done." 

\Ye agree with Olshausen in considering this the most 
difficult miracle in the Gospels. It, more than any other, 
has an air of marvellousness about it such as we find 
in later and apocryphal writings. But there is no reason 
to question the genuineness of the passage. There is 
27 



314 MATTHEW XVII. 

nothing derogatory to the Saviour's character in the per- 
formance of such an act. The Gospels are intended to 
meet the wants of all classes of minds, from the most 
ignorant to those most advanced in intellectual and moral 
culture. That which is needed to impress the ignorant 
may seem to others trivial and unworthy of a Divine 
author, while that which is the most striking evidence 
of a Divine authority to him who has made the greatest 
advances in spiritual improvement may be wholly without 
meaning to his ignorant neighbor. This, under the cir- 
cumstances of the case, may have been the most effectual 
way of impressing important truths on the mind of Peter. 
Peter had made an inconsiderate promise. May it not 
be also that Jesus took that opportunity to show that even a 
hasty promise, if it involved no act of injustice to others, 
was in his sight so sacred that a miracle was to be per- 
formed, rather than that a disciple of his should fail to 
keep it? Bengel significantly says, "Men who are occu- 
pied in worldly affairs most easily take offence at the 
saints when money is in question." 



NOTES. 



And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his 
brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, 
and was transfigured before them ; and his face did shine as 2 
the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, 3 
there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, talking with him. 
Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good 4 
for us to be here ; if thou wilt, let us make here three taber- 
nacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 
While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed 5 
them ; and, behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This 

5. a voice out of the cloud] chap. iii. 17 ; secondly, at this 
"A voice came from heaven, first, central period ; thirdly, "and lastly, 



MATTHEW XVII. 



315 



is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him. 

6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and 

7 were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and 
e said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up 
9 their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. And as they 

came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, 

Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again 

io from the dead. And his disciples asked him saying, Why 

n then say the scribes that Elias must first come ? And Jesus 

answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and 
12 restore all things ; but I say unto you, that Elias is come 

already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him what- 



a little before our Lord's Passion, 
John xii. 28. After each of these 
voices from heaven, fresh virtue 
shone forth in Jesus, fresh ardor and 
fresh sweetness in his discourses and 
actions, fresh progress." Bengel. 
9. the vision] " What 
things they had seen." Mark ix. 9. 
11. Elias truly shall first 
come, and restore all things] 
But how did John the Baptist restore 
all things t " Seminaliter," says 
Bengel, i. e. " he will sow the seed 
of these things : he will initiate 
them, as the preparation for what is 
to follow." 12. but I say 

unto you, that Elias is come 
already] " With the preaching of 
John the Baptist, as described by 
the Jewish and Gospel writers, and 
the history of the eventful era an- 
nounced by him, is associated the 
memorable prophecy in Malaehi : 
' Behold, I Avill send my messenger, 
and he shall prepare the way before 
me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, 
shall suddenly come to his temple, 
and the messenger of the covenant, 
whom ye delight in [or wish for] : 
behold,' he shall come, saith the 
Lord of Hosts. But who may abide 
the day of his coming? And who 
shall stand when he appeareth ? 
For he is like a refiner's fke, and 
like fuller's soap ; and he shall sit 
as a refiner and purifier of silver: 
and he shall purify the sons of Levi, 
and purge them as gold and silver, 
that they may offer unto the Lord 
an offering in righteousness.' In 



his denunciations of divine retri- 
bution, the prophet sets forth the 
prominent sins of the times referred 
to in his prediction, and it will be 
perceived that they are principally 
those which Christ especially no- 
ticed in his reprobation of the de- 
generate people of his day : ' I will 
be a swift witness against the sorcer- 
ers, and against the adulterers, and 
against false swearers, and against 
those that oppress the hireling in 
his wages, the widow, and the father- 
less, and that turn aside the stranger 
from his right, and fear not me, 
saith the Lord of Hosts.' These 
words find a correspondence in 
those bold and cutting rebukes in 
which our Lord exposed the profli- 
gacy of his own times, and which 
he so pointedly directed against 
adulterers, and those who betrayed 
others into adultery by their false 
doctrines of divorcement, — against 
false swearers and those who en- 
couraged false swearing by their 
absurd distinctions between oaths, 
— against those who wronged the 
fatherless and the widow, and who 
were the signal objects of his most 
solemn denunciations. 

" But perhaps no portion of the 
prophecy exhibits more striking 
coincidences with the events of 
the Gospel age than the conclu- 
sion : ' Behold, the day cometh 
that shall burn as an oven ; and 
all the proud, yea, and all that 
do wickedly, shall be stubble : and 
the day that cometh shall burn 



316 



MATTHEW XVII. 



soever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer 
of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto 13 
them of John the Baptist. 

And when they were come to the multitude, there came to 14 
him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, 15 
have mercy on my son ; for he is lunatic and sore vexed ; for 
ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I 16 
brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. 
Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse gen- 17 



them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, 
that it shall leave them neither root 
nor branch. But unto you that fear 
my name shall the Sun of Right- 
eousness arise with healing in his 

Avings Behold, I will send 

you Elijah the prophet, before the 
coming of the great and dreadful 
day of the Lord ; and he shall turn 
the heart of the fathers to the chil- 
dren, and the heart of the children 
to their fathers, lest I come and 
smite the earth with a curse ; ' — or, 
in other words, so as to prevent, if 
possible, or take the appropriate 
means to prevent, the infliction of 
punishment on the land, — not earth, 
as the original, not only here, but 
often elsewhere also, is inappro- 
priately rendered in the common 
version of the Scriptures. 

" When this prophecy was utter- 
ed, the Jews had returned from that . 
long captivity in Babylon to which 
the predictions of national judg- 
ments in the Old Testament so fre- 
quently refer. But the spirit of 
prophecy foresaw in the distant fu- 
ture a still heavier judgment await- 
ing them for their sins. Such a 
calamity actually befell them in the 
Gospel age, — a calamity far ex- 
ceeding any they had ever before 
experienced. Moreover, not many 
years anterior to this catastrophe, a 
remarkable person, styling himself 
a messenger from God, and who au- 
thenticated his commission by mira- 
cles, made his appearance in Judaea, 
preaching everywhere a sublime 
system of piety and virtue, severely 
reproving the people for their im- 
moralities, and denouncing the cor- 
ruption of the priesthood. Thus 



was it foretold. As his immediate 
precursor, came also one who might 
be termed another Elijah, from the 
strong resemblance he bore to that 
stern and minatory prophet, assail- 
ing the vices of the day with re- 
markable zeal and boldness, and 
endeavoring to persuade the Jews to 
a general reformation as the only 
means of averting an impending 
destruction which would prove, he 
observed, as ' an axe laid to the 
roots of the trees.' A personage 
every way resembling him had been 
announced by the Messianic proph- 
ets, and our Saviour declared that 
John was the individual foretold. 

" Does any one say that all this 
is certainly quite remarkable, but 
that still it is possible that John, 
notwithstanding he was a just man, 
and held in the highest reverence, 
might have been misled by an ar- 
dent imagination in supposing him- 
self the Forerunner predicted ? One 
thing is plain. The destruction of 
Jerusalem shortly after his day 
was no illusion of the imagination. 
The catastrophe really took place, 
whatever may be thought of its 
being a fulfilment of the judgment 
denounced by Malachi. It fol- 
lowed the preaching of John, pre- 
cisely as it had been predicted that 
a tremendous calamity to Judaea 
would follow the preaching of a 
prophet whose description strikingly 
answers to that of the Baptist. And 
as that terrible event which over- 
threw and scattered the Jewish 
nation, soon after the time of the 
Forerunner, was no matter of fancy, 
neither could any imagination have 
foreseen it." Nichols's Hours with 



MATTHEW XVII. 



317 



eration ! how long shall I be with you ? how long shall I suffer 

is you *? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil, 

and he departed out of him ; and the child was cured from 

19 that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, 

20 and said. "Why could not we cast him out '? And Jesus said 
unto them. Because of your unbelief; for verily I say unto 
you. if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say 
unto this mountain. Remove hence to yonder place, and it 
shall remove ; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. 

•:i Howbeit this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting. 
-2-2 And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The 

23 Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men ; and they 
shall kill him. and the third day he shall be raised again. And 
they were exceeding sorry. 

24 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received 



the Evangelists. Vol. I. pp. 270- 
274. 14-21. The critical 

notice of this miracle belongs more 
properly to Mark ix. 14 - 29, where 
the particulars are given more fully. 
17. how Ion? shall I 
be Avith you ?] The following re- 
mark of Bengel here may be true, 
though it belongs to a province 
in which we should be slow to 
speculate. " He was in haste to 
return to the Father : yet he knew 
that he could not effect his de- 
parture until he had conducted 
his disciples into a state of faith. 
Their slowness was painful to him." 
Something of the same feeling is 
shown in John xiv. 9: "Have I 
been so long time with you, and yet 
hast thou not known me. Philip? " 
how Ions: shall I suffer 
you ?] how long shall I put up, or 
bear, with you? The change from 
the Mountain of Transfiguration to 
this scene or" misery and unbelief 
was very great, and evidently a most 
trying one to our Saviour. The 
very susceptibilities by which he 
was capable of being lifted up into 
such a height of joy and glory 
would make him feel more pain- 
fully the contrast here. How natu- 
ral ' is this outburst of holy impa- 
tience, and yet how different from 
the passionless level in which a 
writer of fiction would be likely to 
27* 



cause so exalted a being as Jesus to 
move ! This sudden expression of 
feeling gives a most valuable insight 
into the life of Jesus : and while it 
shows how strong his emotions 
were, it also shows that his strug- 
gle against temptation was not con- 
fined" to the wilderness. " Only he 
can speak thus." says Stier, "who, 
as the Holy One among sinners, bore 
the burden of all, and whose whole 
life was in the innermost sense, from 
the very first, a profound suffering 
through the feeling and enduring of 
sin. Thus, according to the Father's 
counsel, it was necessary in this 
word, which was drawn' from the 
usually closed depths of his heart, 
immediately after the revelation of 
his glory, to manifest the glory also 
of his human endurance, the pain 
of divine love in his human nature, 
which was alike strongly suscepti- 
ble of this on account of meekness 
and purity. ' If we had not this 
word, and that other in Luke xii. 50, 
we should want the true, entire in- 
sight into the self-denying, atoning 
nature even of his whole earthly 
course in our fl esh and blood. What 
complainings, known only to the 
Father, does this single expression, 
which he neither can nor will re- 
strain, presuppose ? " 21. 
but by prayer and fasting] by 
entire devotion to God, and self' 






318 



MATTHEW XVII. 



tribute-money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your Master 

25 pay tribute ? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into 

the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, 



renunciation. 24. tribute- 

money] ra Siopax/itt, the two- 
drachma, a sum paid annually by 
the Jews of twenty years old and 
upwards towards the Temple in 
Jerusalem, Exod. xxx. 11 - 16 ; 2 
Kings xii. 4 ; 2 Chron. xxiv. 6-9. 
The original sum was half a shekel, 
which was not a coin, but a certain 
weight of silver. " In the time of 
the Maccabees (1 Mace. xv. 6) the 
Jews received the privilege, or 
won the right, from the kings of 
Syria of coining their own money, 
and the shekels, half-shekels, and 
quarter-shekels, now found in the 
cabinets of collectors, are to be re- 
ferred to this period. These grow- 
ing scarce, and not being coined 
any more, it became the custom to 
estimate the temple dues as two- 
drachms, a sum actually somewhat 
larger than the half-shekel, as those 
who have compared together the 
weights of the existing specimens 
have found." As the produce of 
the miracle was to pay for two per- 
sons, the sum required was four 
drachmas, or a whole shekel ; and 
the stater, which is translated piece 
of money, in verse 27, is fust that 
sum. Josephus (Ant. XVIII. 9. 1) 
speaks of this as an annual pay- 
ment in his time ; and Philo, also, 
" who tells us how conscientiously 
and ungrudgingly it was paid by 
the Jews of the Dispersion, as we'll 
as by the Jews of Palestine, so that 
in almost every city there was a 
sacred treasury for the collection of 
these dues, some of which came 
from cities beyond the limits of the 
Roman empire." Doth, 

not your Master pay tribute? 
" We may presume," says Trench, 
"that our Lord and Peter, with 
others also, it is most probable, of 
his disciples, were now returning to 
Capernaum, which was ' his city,' 
after one of his usual absences. 
The Lord passed forward without 
question, but the collectors detained 
Peter, who, having lingered a little 



behind, was now following his Lord. 
Chrysostom suggests that this ques- 
tion [that of the collectors to Peter] 
may be a rude and ill-mannered one : 
' Does your Master count himself 
exempt from the payment of the 
ordinary dues? We know his free- 
dom : does he mean to exercise it 
here ? ' Yet, on the other hand, it 
may have been, as I suppose it was, 
the exact contrary. Having seen 
or heard of the wonderful works 
which Christ did, they may really 
have been uncertain in what light 
to regard him, whether to claim 
from him the money or not; and in 
this doubting and inquiring spirit, 
they may have put the question to 
Peter. This Theophylact suggests. 
But, after all, we want that which 
the history has not given, the tone in 
which the question was put, to know 
whether it was a rude one or the 
contrary. To their demand Peter, 
overhasty, as was so often the case, 
at once replied* that his Master 
would pay the money. No doubt 
zeal for his Master's honor made 
him so quick to pledge his Lord ; he 
was confident that his piety would 
make him prompt to every payment 
sanctioned and sanctified by God's 
Law. Yet at the same time there 
was here, on the part of the apostle, 
a failing to recognize the higher 
dignity of his Lord: it was not in 
this spirit that he had said a little 
while before, ' Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the living God.' He un- 
derstood not, or at least for the time 
had lost sight of, his Lord's true po- 
sition and dignity, that he was a Son 
over his own house, not a servant 

in another's house It was 

not for Him who was ' greater than 
the temple,' and himself the true 
temple (John ii. 21), identical with 
it according to its spiritual signifi- 
cance, and in whom the Shekinah 
glory dwelt, to pay dues for the sup- 
port of that other temple built with 
hands, which was now fast losing 
its significance, since the true taber- 



MATTHEW XVII. 



319 



Simon ? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or 
tribute ? of their own children, or of strangers ? Peter saith 

26 unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the 

27 children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, 
go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that 
first cometh up ; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou 
shalt find a piece of money ; that take, and give unto them, for 
me and thee. 



nacle was set up, which the Lord 
had pitched, and not man. It is 
then for the purpose of bringing 
back Peter, and with him the other 
disciple's, to the true recognition of 
himself, from which they had in 
part fallen, that the Lord puts to him 
the question which follows ; and 
being engaged, through Peter's 
hasty imprudence, to the render- 
ing of the didrachm, which now he 
could hardly recede from, yet did 
it in the remarkable way of this 

miracle Here, as so often 

iu the life of our Lord, the depth 
of his poverty and humiliation is 
lightened up by a gleam of his 
glory. And thus, by the manner 
of the payment, did he reassert 
the true dignity of his person, which 
else by the payment itself might 
have been obscured and compro- 
mised in the eyes of some, but 
which it was of all importance for 
the disciples that they should not 
lose sight of, or forget. The miracle, 
then, was to supply a real need, — 
slight indeed as an outward need, 
for the money could assuredly have 
been in some other and more ordi- 
nary way procured; but as an inner 
need, most real ; in this, then, dif- 



fering in its essence from the apoc- 
ryphal miracles, which are con- 
tinually mere sports and freaks of 
power, having no ethical motive or 
meaning whatever." Notes on the 
Miracles. 25. custom or 

tribute] a property-tax, or a poll- 
tax. 26. Then are the 
children free] Referring to him- 
self, according to Peter's confes- 
sion, as the Son of God, and there- 
fore not liable to pay money for ti*e 
support of worship' in his Father's 
temple. It is important to bear in 
mind that this money was not paid 
to the Roman government, but for 
the temple sen-ice. 27. 
for me and thee] As the tribute 
here paid was for those twenty 
years old and upwards, and as it 
was paid only for Jesus and Peter, 
Bengel infers that the other dis- 
ciples had not then passed their 
twentieth year. They were, proba- 
bly, most of them very- young men; 
but notwithstanding' Bengel's sa- 
gacity and learning in such matters, 
we do not think there is any suffici- 
ent reason to suppose that at that 
time any of them, with perhaps the 
exception of John, were less than 
twenty years of age. 



320 MATTHEW XVIII. 1-10. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Primitive Church of Christ. 

"We look upon this chapter as indicating, 1. (1 - 4.) The 
terms of admission into the kingdom of Heaven, or the 
Church of Christ; 2. (5-10.) The thoughtful tenderness 
and solicitude with which his followers, or the members 
of his Church, are to watch over the weak and inex- 
perienced among them ; 3. (11 — 14.) The earnestness with 
which they are to seek out and save the lost ; 4. (15 - 17.) 
The manner in which, as members of his Church, we are to 
<feal with those of our brethren who injure us ; 5. (18- 20.) 
The power which is given to us as united together in 
him and he in us; and 5. (21-35.) The forgiving and 
forbearing spirit which we are to exercise towards our 
brethren, however often they may sin against us. The 
meaning of each passage is perhaps in itself plain enough ; 
but it requires close attention and a careful analysis to 
see how intimately the different clauses are connected, and 
how they all bear on the same subject. 

1-10. First, there are the disciples with their minds 
so blinded by schemes of personal ambition and their 
obstinate Jewish prejudices, that they are hardly able to 
understand the plainest teachings of their Master. Their 
jealousy and pride had perhaps been excited by the par- 
ticular favor which had been shown (xvii. 1) to Peter, 
James, and John, and they were disputing by the way 
as to which of them should hold the highest offices in 
his kingdom. Jesus (Luke ix. 47), knowing the feeling 
by which they were moved, asked them (Mark ix. 33), 
after coming into the house, what they had been disputing 
about by the way. They, obviously abashed by his ques- 



MATTHEW XVIII. 1 - 10. 321 

tion, at first made no reply. But afterwards, concealing 
the invidiousness of their personal dispute under the gen- 
eral form of their question, they asked Jesus who is greatest 
in the kingdom of Heaven, i. e. in the community or king- 
dom which he is about to establish on the earth ? He 
replied in such a way as not only to meet the specific 
question, but the feeling out of which their dispute and 
all similar disputes have arisen. 

He called to him a child, and with this impressive 
emblem before them, said, "Unless ye be converted and 
become as little children" — far from being the greatest 
— "ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven," — shall 
not belong to my kingdom, or my church, at all. These 
proud, ambitious thoughts and prejudices of yours must be 
put aside. For he who like this little child makes himself of 
no account, and has his mind and heart open with childlike 
docility to every pure influence and teaching, — he is great- 
est in the kingdom of Heaven. Then, rising from the lit- 
eral to the figurative meaning of the word child, and carry- 
ing the idea of self-renunciation or humility out into deeds of 
active beneficence, he adds, whosoever shall receive one 
such child, i. e. one weak and inexperienced disciple of mine 
in my name, i. e. in my spirit, receiveth me, and, Luke 
ix. 48, not only me, but Him who hath sent me. As the 
rulers of a mighty empire throw their defences around 
the least of their obedient subjects, and identify them- 
selves with him if his rights are violated, so Christ identi- 
fies himself with the most helpless and ignorant of his 
disciples, and makes their cause his. And not only will 
he who receives such an one in a spirit of childlike 
humility and love, receive Christ, but, 6, he who shall 
offend such an one, i. e. who shall be the means of 
causing a weak brother to sin, shall be exposed to the 
heaviest condemnation. He shall be cut off from the 
community of believers. Sad it is for the world, 7, that 
it should abound in temptations to sin ; but that, alas 



322 MATTHEW XVIII. 1 - 10. 

for them ! is no excuse for those who lead others astray. 
And as there is no way to avoid being the cause of 
temptation to others, except by cutting off whatever is 
wrong in our own lives and hearts, therefore, 8, 9, if thy 
hand or thine eye is causing thee to sin, cut it off, tear 
it out, and cast it from thee. Then, in a still stronger 
form, he repeats the admonition that they must not let 
their pride and want of charity injure the weak and in- 
experienced disciples, for, he adds, the angels who watch 
over them are highly honored by my Father who is in 
heaven, and, unworthy and lost though these feeble ones 
may seem to you, it is for that very reason that the Son 
of man has come to save them. And his coming to save 
them is a further reason why you should be the more 
careful and thoughtful for them. How does it seem to 
you? Then, 12, 13, follows the pertinent and beautiful 
parable of the shepherd on the mountains searching for 
the one foolish sheep that had wandered away, as they 
also — his disciples — must go out and search for the erring 
and the lost. For in so doing, they will only be acting in 
accordance with the will of God. Even so it is not the 
will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these 
little ones — these frail and erring ones — should perish. 

If then your brother sin against you, do what you can 
to " gain " or win him back, — 1. By going to him and 
setting the matter truthfully before him between you and 
him alone, that his pride may not be excited by the pres- 
ence of others, and that he may be touched by your 
kindness ; 2. If he does not hear you alone, then take 
two or three with you, that he may be moved by the 
weight of their authority, and think more carefully of 
what he has done ; but, 3. If he disregard them, refer 
it to the church, and, if he refuse to listen to them, you 
have done all that you can do, and are henceforth to re- 
gard him as no longer a Christian brother. For an ex- 
planation of v. 18, which is closely connected with this, 



MATTHEW XVIII. 18-20. 323 

see note to xvi. 19. The authority there given to St. 
Peter is here assigned to all the Apostles, and also, we 
think, to the Church in all ages, which of course over- 
throws the papal claim of supremacy through St. Peter. 

18 — 20. The condition of fulfilment for the promises 
in verses 18 and 19 is given in 20. "For where two or 
three are brought together in my name, i. e. in my spirit, 
there am I in the midst of them, and whatsoever they, 
thoroughly united in my spirit and in harmony with one 
another, shall in accordance with that spirit bind or loose 
on earth, it shall be bound or loosed in heaven, and what- 
ever they shall ask, it shall be granted to them." The 
perfect harmony with the spirit of Christ, i. e. in his name, 
is the condition on which the action on earth shall be 
ratified in heaven, and on which the prayer of the dis- 
ciples on earth will be answered by their Father in heaven. 
So in John xiv. 13, 14, and xvi. 25, 26, the same con- 
dition, "in my name," is annexed. 

Have we not here (17-20) Christ's idea of a church? 
Where two or three are gathered together in his name, 
and he is in the midst of them, is not that, in its simplest 
form, a Christian Church ? The church spoken of in this 
passage is, as Stier says, " rhe society, called together 
in unity of faith and love, of those who believe on him, 
who are united in his name ; a society in which is carried 
out and exercised upon earth what is valid in heaven. 
This is the simple, fundamental idea here clearly expressed." 
The presence of Christ is, of course, a spiritual presence, 
and the form of speech here and elsewhere (e. g. John 
xiv. 23) would indicate that it is also a personal pres- 
ence. Here then is a Christian Church — a community 
of believers, though only two or three — coming together 
in his name, united in his spirit, and he himself in the 
midst of them, the medium to them of a divine life, which 
flows in upon them, and by which they grow up in him, 
" the one Mediator between God and men." Here is the 



324 MATTHEW XVIII. 18-20. 

seminal idea of a Christian Church, and with this as a 
centre, in accordance with the directions given in this 
chapter, each separate community of believers, formed in 
direct communion with Christ, has life in itself through 
him, and is in itself through him a living organism, with 
all the elements of Christian growth and life. And 
wherever two or three of its members find themselves, 
in the Providence of God, cut off by change of place or 
other circumstances from the primitive community, they 
also meeting together in the name of Christ may be united 
with him as members of his body, and so long as they 
live in accordance with his precepts they are truly a 
church of Christ, owned, assisted, blessed by him, and grow- 
ing up into him who is the head. What they shall bind 
or loose in his name, i. e. in accordance with his spirit, 
on earth, shall be bound or loosed in heaven, and what 
they shall agree on earth to ask in accordance with his 
spirit, it shall be done for them by their Father who is 
in heaven. This is the primitive idea of the Church, — 
and the only one which was given by Christ. Arch- 
bishop Whately says, that " the churches founded by the 
Apostles were all quite independent of each other, or of 
any one central body." Out of this simple community 
of Christian believers, united with one another in Christ, 
and having such officers, or servants rather and ministers, 
as might be required for the purposes of general conven- 
ience, order, and edification, have grown up the monstrous 
ecclesiastical assumptions and prerogatives, by which men, 
under different names, but always in the spirit of arro- 
gance and presumption that is here rebuked, have lord- 
ed it over God's heritage. What can be more directly 
in violation of the teachings of Jesus than the preroga- 
tives and despotic authority which have been assumed 
over his Church ? His language is : " Whosoever, there- 
fore, shall humble himself as this little child, the same 
is greatest in the kingdom of Heaven ; " and the kingdom 



MATTHEW XVIII. 21-35. 325 

of Heaven in the question, verse 1, to which these words 
are a reply, is the kingdom of Christ on earth, his Church 
here on earth. In Luke xxii. 24-26 (with which com- 
pare Matthew xx. 25-27) he uses still stronger lan- 
guage. There was a strife among the disciples, which 
of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said 
unto them, " The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship 
over them ; and they that exercise authority upon them 
are called Benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he 
that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger ; 
and he that is chief as he that doth serve." The same 
idea is again urged upon the disciples by Jesus in lan- 
guage which looks as if it had been directly aimed at 
the distinctions which have sprung up to feed a low, 
earthly ambition in his Church. " Be not ye called Rabbi : 
for one is your Master [Schoolmaster], even Christ; and 
all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon 
the earth : for one is your Father, who is in heaven. 
Neither be ye called masters : for one is your Master, 
even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall 
be your servant." (Matthew xxiii. 7-11.) Of course these 
terms are not to be taken literally ; but if they have any 
purpose or meaning whatever, it is to condemn the spirit- 
ual domination and pride which have been cherished and 
exercised within the Church, and under the pretence of 
sustaining its dignity and authority. 

21-35. As to the question put by Peter, and the reply 
to it, it is not certain whether they made a part of this 
same conversation or not. Even if they did not, the 
Evangelist has evidently introduced them in this place 
as bearing upon the subject which has just been under 
consideration. The circumstances of the case, especially 
the manner in which the question is put, would seem to 
indicate that Peter was prompted to ask the question by 
what had just been said. After the directions which Jesus 
had given, 15-17, for dealing with an offending brother, 
28 






326 MATTHEW XVIII. 

Peter asked for some specific rule. He wished to know 
precisely how many times he is to forgive, and in mention- 
ing seven as the number, he undoubtedly thinks that he 
is carrying his forbearance to the farthest possible limit. 
The reply of Jesus, "I say not unto you, until seven 
times, but until seventy times seven," implies that there 
are to be no limits of the kind which Peter has sug- 
gested. And to illustrate and enforce the duty of for- 
giving others from our need of the Divine forgiveness, 
he added the parable of the unmerciful servant, which 
shows in the most forcible manner that we cannot expect 
God to forgive us unless we from our hearts forgive every 
one his brother. It is the same doctrine implied in the 
Lord's prayer (vi. 12), and more explicitly urged in the 
remarks which follow it (vi. 14, 15). 



NOTES. 



At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, 
Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven ? And Jesus 2 
called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 
and said, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and 3 
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom 
of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this 4 
little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of Heaven. 
And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name, re- 5 
ceiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones 6 
which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone 
were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the 

1. At the same time] Liter- ing is in the midst of the open sea, 

ally, at that hour, but not thus to where there could be no possible 

be' tnken. It is nearly equivalent hope of escape. This mode of 

to Then, or At that time. punishment was not practised by 

6. a millstone] The form the Jews, though it was in use 

of expression here is very strong, among some other nations. It is 

Tb~ millstone is of the heavy kind better for a man to be drowned now 

turn^ Jy animals, and the drown- in the sea, than to live till he has 



MATTHETT XVIII. 



327 



7 depth of the sea. TVoe unto the world because of offences ! 

for it must needs be that offences come ; but woe to that man 

s by whom the offence cometh ! "Wherefore, if thy hand or thy 
foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee ; it is 
better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than, 
having two hands, or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. 

9 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from 
thee ; it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, 
rather than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell-fire. 

10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for 
I say unto you. that in heaven their angels do always behold 

n the face of my Father which is in heaven. For the Son of 

1-2 man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye ? 
if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone 
astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into 

13 the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray '? And 
if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more 
of that sheep than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. 

14 Even so, it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven 



earned these little ones to sin, and 
then die. 8. if thy hand 

or thy foot offend thee] What- 
ever is to you a cause or occasion 
of sin, though it be a hand, or foot, 
or eye, cut it off, pluck it out, and 
cast it from you. " Hand, foot, 
eye,'' says Olshausen, " here appear 
to be used by the Saviour to denote 
mental powers and dispositions, and 
he counsels their restraint, their 
non-development, if a man find 
himself, by their cultivation, with- 
drawn from advancing the highest 
principle of life." " It is, however, 
a more elevated thing to succeed in 
learning how to cultivate even the 
lower faculties in harmony with 
the higher life." 10! their 

angels] Behold the face, 8?c. indi- 
cates a place of honor and peculiar 
favor. " This saying of our Lord," 
says Alford, "assures us that those 
angels whose honor is high before 
God are intrusted with the charge 
of the humble and meek, — the 
children in age and the children 
in grace." " We speak to our 
children," says Stier, " far too lit- 



tle about their angels, and we our- 
selves, as believers, do not think 
enough of ours. The angels are in 
heaven, and yet occupied at the 
same time in service and business 
on earth about their wards ; for the 
heaven is not closed in space over 
the earth, but is ever open to us in 
everything which it sends. Where 
the angels of God go and stand, 
there also is heaven, and the face 
of God, which they at all times, 
without interruption from anything 
else, behold." 12. he 

not leave the ninety and nine, 
and goeth into the mountains] 
Luke xv. 4 says, " in the wilder- 
ness." " The combined description 
of the pastures in the wilderness, 
and on the mountains, can hardly 
find any position in Palestine pre- 
cisely applicable, except ' the moun- 
tainous country ' or ' wilderness,' 
so often called by these names, on 
the east of the Jordan. The shep- 
herd of this touching pai-able thus 
becomes the successor of the wild 
herdsmen of the trans-Jordanic 
tribes who wandered far and wide 



If 



328 



MATTHEW XVIII. 



that one of these little ones should perish. Moreover, if 15 

thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault 
between thee and him alone ; if he shall hear thee, thou hast 
gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with 16 
thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three wit- 
nesses every word may be established. And if he shall neg- 17 
lect to hear them, tell it unto the church ; but if he neglect to 
hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a 



over those free and open hills, — 
the last relics of the patriarchal 
state of their ancestors." Stanley's 
Sinai and Palestine, p. 416. 
17. unto the church] This word, 
eK<\i](Tia, is found nowhere in the 
Gospels, except in this verse and 
Matt. xvi. 18: " On this rock I will 
bnild my church," — a remarkable 
fact, when we consider how much 
the Church has arrogated to itself, 
so that the history of the Church is 
considered synonymous with the 
history of Christianity. The grad- 
ual ascendency of the Church and 
its offices, — of an outward despotic 
authority over the inward life and 
precepts of our religion, — furnishes 
one of the saddest exhibitions of 
human ambition and depravity. 
The word, as used by Jesus, was 
undoubtedly intended to express 
what he meant by a community of 
believers united in him, and endow- 
ed by him with all the means of 
grace which are needed for their 
Christian life and advancement. 
In the passage before us he refers 
to one such community of believers 
as complete in itself and as having 
authority to deal with offenders. 
In Matt. xvi. 18 he uses the word 
Church to express in the abstract 
the whole system of means and 
powers and agencies by which his 
kingdom was to be established in 
the world, resting, as they all do, 
on faith in him as the Christ, the 
Son of the living God. The word 
itself, says Trench, Synonymes of 
the New Testament, pp. 17, 18, " is 
one of those words whose history 
it is peculiarly interesting to watch, 
as they obtain a deeper meaning, 
and receive a new consecration in 
the Christian Church, which, even 



while it did not invent, has yet as- 
sumed them into its service, and 
employed them in a far loftier sense 
than any to which the world had ever 

put them before iiaik-qcrla, 

as all know, was the lawful assem- 
bly in a free Greek city of all those 
possessed of the rights of citizen- 
ship, for the transaction of public 
affairs. That they were summoned 
is expressed in the latter part of 
the word ; that they were sum- 
moned out of the whole population, 
a select portion of it, including nei- 
ther the populace, nor yet strangers, 
nor those who had forfeited their 
civic rights, this is expressed in the 
first. Both the calling, and the call- 
ing out, are moments to be remem- 
bered, wdien the word is assumed 
into a higher Christian sense, for in 
them the chief part of its peculiar 
adaptation to its auguster uses lies. 
It is interesting to observe Iioav, on 
one occasion in the New Testament, 
the word returns to its earlier sig- 
nificance." (Acts xix. 32, 39, 40. ) 
The meaning of the word ecclesin, 
church, may derive some light 
from the use, by our Saviour, of the 
word iickeKToi, the elect, or the 
chosen, since the ecclesin was the 
body of the eclectoi, the chosen. 
" For many are called, but few are 
chosen,'''' eclectoi. (Matt. xxii. 14.) 
" But for the sake of the elect 
[eclectoi] those days shall be short- 
ened." (Matt. xxiv. 22.) " So as to 
deceive, if possible, even the elect.'''' 
(Matt. xxiv. 24.) In verse 31 of 
the same chapter, " And they shall 
gather together the eltct from 
the four winds." " And he shall 
avenge his elecW (Luke xviii. 7.) 
" Let him save himself, if he be 
the Christ, the chosen [the elect] of 



MATTHEW XVIII. 



329 



18 publican. Yerily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind 

on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall 

19 loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say unto 
you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any- 
thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father 

20 which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered 
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. 



God." (Luke xxiii. 35.) The 
Church of Christ is the body or 
community of the elect, of those 
who are not only called, but called 
out, i. e. chosen as true and faithful 
believers. It includes the weak, 
the inexperienced, and those who 
are easily led astray, and directs the 
strong to watch over them ; to seek 
them out when they wander away ; 
to deal kindly but honestly with 
them, when they do wrong ; and to 
forgive them whenever they sin- 
cerely and penitently ask to be 
forgiven. Here is the Christian 
Church, calling in those who are 
without, and receiving those who, 
by accepting the call, cause them- 
selves to be effectually called, and 
numbered among the elect. The 
word church, in the New Testa- 
ment, is almost always applied to a 
single body of believers, united in 
one another and in Christ, and thus 
forming a community by them- 
selves, with all the privileges, ordi- 
nances, and means of grace essen- 
tial to salvation, so that if every 
other Church in the world should, 
be cut off, in this one would be left 
the germ of all that would be need- 
ed to evangelize and convert the 
world. The Word church, in Matt, 
xvi. 18. is used to express in the 
abstract that system of powers and 
agencies, human and divine, by 
which the kingdom of Heaven, the 
religion of Jesus, is to sustain, ex- 
tend, and perpetuate itself in the 
world, so that the gates of death, 
the powers of evil, shall not prevail 
against it. It is also used, though 
very rarely, and never by our 
Saviour, or in the Gospels, to desig- 
nate the great body of the faith- 
ful throughout the world, who live 
and believe in Christ, keeping the 
commandments of God and the 
28* 



Faith of Jesus. In this sense the 
word is used by St. Paul, e. g. Col. 
i. 18, " And he is the head of the 
body, the Church." 20. in 

my name] Name denotes the per- 
son, the being himself, or his spirit. 
To assemble in the name of Jesus, 
and pray in his name, presupposes 
the life and the spirit of Jesus to be 
already existing in those so meeting 
together. " It is no isolated act," 
" but requires rather as a necessary 
condition, that man should be under 
the power of living Christian prin- 
ciple." The influence of 'combined 
and associated prayer, through the 
sympathetic quickening of the relig- 
ious nature is here implied. 

there am I in the midst of 
them] He is present by his spirit, 
which they are thus cherishing in 
their own hearts, and in his religion 
which they are thus seeking to es- 
tablish as "the rule and law of their 
lives. He also, we suppose, promises 
to be himself personalhj present 
with them. Such a promise does 
not of itself prove him omnipresent. 
We are too apt to infer that powers 
more than human can belong only 
to God. It is said that because 
Jesus stilled the tempest, he must 
therefore have been omnipotent : 
that because he knew that Peter 
would catch a fish with the piece of 
money in his mouth, therefore he 
was omniscient; and that because 
he is personally present with all 
those who come together in his 
name, therefore he is omnipresent. 
Such reasoning is altogether un- 
authorized. Between the limita- 
tions of man's faculties and the 
omnipotence of God, there is room 
for the exercise of powers which 
lie beyond the reach of all that we 
can know and distinctly conceive. 
We cannot define the ranks of be- 



330 



MATTHEW XVIII. 



Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my 21 
brother sin against me, and I forgive him ? till seven times ? 
Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times, 22 
but, Until seventy times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of 23 
Heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account 
of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was 24 
brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents. But 25 
forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be 
sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and pay- 
ment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and wor- 26 
shipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will 
pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with 27 
compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But 28 
the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, 
which owed him an hundred pence ; and he laid hands on him, 
and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. 



ings and intelligences which may 
range through the boundless fields 
of existence between us and the 
Supreme Mind. We cannot set 
any precise limits to their powers. 
Between the limitations of man's 
presence, while he is in the body, 
and the ubiquity of the Infinite 
Spirit, the power of being personally 
present in places distant from one 
another at the same moment, may 
be possessed in entirely different 
degrees by different beings. A 
man may be present to ten thousand 
men at the same moment, acting 
by his voice and gestures on every 
one of the vast assembly. It may 
well be, that spiritual beings of a 
higher order, not bound by a mate- 
rial organization, may with their 
clearer perceptions and finer powers 
of action be present at the same 
moment to millions of beings widely 
separated from one another. It will 
not do then to accept the reasoning 
by which one class of Christians 
argue that the promise here made 
by Jesus to be personally present 
with his disciples is an impossi- 
bility; or that by which others ar- 
gue, that because he is thus pi-esent 
he must therefore be omnipresent. 
Bad reasoning is as much out of 



place in a religious as in a scientific 
investigation, and is as dangerous 
in the interpretation of the words 
of Divine Truth as in the limita- 
tions which it would put on the 
works of the Divine Mind. 
24. ten thousand talents] The 
largest sum that was spoken of, as 
we sometimes say a thousand mil- 
lions of dollars. According to Ols- 
hausen, it could not be less than 
$ 13,000,000. " In the construction 
of the tabernacle, twenty-nine tal- 
ents of gold were used. (Exod. 
xxxviii. 24.) David prepared for 
the temple three thousand talents 
of gold, and the princes five thou- 
sand." According to Plutarch, it 
was exactly this sum of 10,000 
talents with which Darius sought 
to buy off Alexander ; and the pay- 
ment of the same sum was imposed 
by the Romans on Antiochus the 
Great, after his defeat by them. 
26. fell down and 
worshipped him] A customary 
act of respect from an inferior to 
a superior. 28. an hundred 

pence] less than a millionth part 
of ten thousand talents, showing 
the smallness of our brother's obli- 
gation to us, compared with ours to 
God. he laid hands on him, 



MATTHEW XVIII. 



331 



29 And his fellow-servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, 

30 saying, Have patience with me. and I will pay thee all. And 
he would not ; but went and east him into prison, till he should 

31 pay the debt. So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, 
thev were very sorry : and came and told unto their lord all 

3-2 that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, 
said unto him, thou wicked servant. I forgave thee all that 

33 debt, because thou desiredst me : shouldst not thou also have 
had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on 

34 thee ? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tor- 

35 mentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So like- 
wise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you. if ye from 
your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. 



and took him by the throatl 
more exactly and literally, lit seized 
koked him. Pay me 

that thou owest] Observe here 
the haughty mode of expression 
which is so exactly in character 
with the reckless and cruel servant. 
He does not mention the trifling 
sum of one hundred pence, which 
would lessen his consequence and 
rebuke his pride, but shows his in- 
solence while he conceals the small- 
- ; his claims, as some do the 
poverty of their ideas, by a grand, 
imperious, and generalizing form of 
speech. If the sum due to'him had 
been ten thousand talents, he could 
not have made a more lofty and 
sounding demand. 29. fell 

down at his feet, and besought 
him] Not as in verse 26. fell 
down and worshipped 'him. The dif- 
ferent desrees of homage customary 
in the two cases, according to the 



dignity of the persons, is nicely 
indicated by the language. 
32. O thou wicked servant] His 
cruelty to his fellow-servant was 

more severely regarded than his 
wasting his lord's goods. 
34. till he should pay all that 
was due unto him] and as that 

can never be done, the condition, 
it has been said, amounts to a per- 
petual imprisonment, and there- 
fore proves the doctrine of eternal 
punishment. The Eoman Catholics, 
on the contrary, and some Prot- 
estant writers, e. g. Olshausen. in- 
fer from it, that as the word until 
implies that a limit is fixed. ~o 
there is such a thing after death 
as deliverance, in behalf of some. 
I: seems to us. however, unreason- 
able to deduce any doctrine from 
one of the minor' adjuncts of a 
parable. 



332 MATTHEW XIX. 1-12. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
1-12. — The Christian Law of Divorce. 

1, 2. Jesus now left Galilee for the last time. As 
the Samaritans (Luke ix. 53) refused to receive him, he 
turned eastward from the direct route to Jerusalem, and 
crossing the Jordan entered the Perasa, a part of the 
kingdom of Herod Antipas. Strictly speaking, Judaea did 
not extend beyond the Jordan. But here, as Mr. Norton 
remarks, it is " to be understood in its more extended 
meaning, as equivalent to Palestine. The name Peraea 
is not used in the New Testament. The expression, Judcea 
beyond the Jordan is, as Reland remarks, used by Josephus 
in one instance to denote Perasa." Antiq. XII. 4, 11. 

3-6. The Pharisees come to try and perplex him by 
their questions, and ask him if it is lawful for a man 
to put away his wife for every cause. This, as De Wette 
suggests, was a delicate subject to be discussed in the 
dominions of Herod Antipas. See xiv. There was a 
division of opinion among the Rabbins as to the construc- 
tion to be put upon the Mosaic law of divorce in Deut. 
xxiv. 1. The School of Hillel maintained from it that 
when anything in his wife displeased a husband, " even 
if she had only oversalted his soup," it would be a suffi- 
cient reason for giving her up. Rabbi Schammai took 
the expression in a more limited sense, as referring only 
to what was scandalous and dishonorable. " In the words 
for every cause" says Olshausen, "there is expressed that 
exposition of the Mosaic law which agrees with the opinions 
of Hillel's followers, and the question accordingly is so put 
as to request his opinion on that view." Jesus, in his reply, 
pays no regard to these disputes. He goes not only be- 



MATTHEW XIX. 1-12. 333 

hind them, but also behind the law of Moses, to the 
fundamental reason on which the law of marriage and di- 
vorce must rest. But he does this in a way not to offend 
their Jewish prejudices. From the constitution of the sexes 
as shown in the act of man's creation, Jesus declares, in 
words sacred to the Jews (Gen. ii. 24) the priority and 
sacredness of the marriage relation beyond all others. Not 
by the law of Moses, but long before that, in the constitu- 
tion of the sexes, by the very act of creation, God or- 
dained the law which is to be binding in this relation, 
and, " What God hath thus joined together, let not man 
put asunder." 

7, 8. But if this be so, they ask, " Why did Moses com- 
mand [permit, Mark x. 4] to give a writing of divorce- 
ment, and put her away." In reply to this question, Jesus 
again lays down one of those fundamental principles which 
so ( widely distinguish his views of law from all others. 
God in his dealings with man, he here intimates, must 
adapt his specific laws and regulations to the necessities 
of man's condition. Hence a succession of dispensations, 
each adapted to the existing state of things, and preparing 
the way for something better. Hence in many respects, 
because of the hardness of men's hearts, because they on 
account of their blunted moral sensibilities are able to 
bear only so much, God allows and even enjoins at one 
period of human progress that which is forbidden in a 
more advanced stage of moral and religious culture. Even 
Milton, in his Tetrachordon, allows the necessity of this 
adaptation, though it is opposed to his general course of 
argument. "For this hardness of heart," he says, "it 
was that God suffered, not divorce only, but all that which 
by civilians is termed the secondary law of nature and 
of nations. He suffered his own people to waste and 
spoil and slay by war, to lead captives, to be some masters, 

some servants in his commonwealth; some to be 

undeservedly rich, others to be undeservingly poor. 






334 MATTHEW XIX. 1-12. 

In the same manner, and for the same cause, he suffered 
divorce as well as marriage, our imperfect and degenerate 
condition of necessity requiring this law among the rest, 
as a remedy against intolerable wrong and servitude above 
the patience of man to bear." This graded principle of 
adaptation to man's condition and capabilities in the laws 
which are designed for his use even by the Divine wisdom, 
must always be borne in mind by those who would study 
the laws of Moses in the light of the highest philosophy. 
Law is always given, as St. Paul says of the Jewish 
law (Gal. iii. 19), because of transgressions ; and not that 
which is perfect when judged by the rules of absolute 
rectitude, but that which is the best that men are able 
to bear at the time, is the law which is dictated by the 
highest wisdom. 

Considering the character of the Jews in the time of 
Moses, the difficulty with which they were brought to 
recognize the highest sentiments of religion and morals, 
and especially the violence of their passions and their 
tendency continually to lapse into idolatry and a low sen- 
sualism, it is easy to see that some regard must have 
been had to these things in the laws of marriage. In 
many respects the Jews of that time were but a race 
of semi-barbarous, half-emancipated slaves. Lightfoot in 
his commentary on this passage has shown that, had it 
not been for the permission of divorce and the legal forms 
by which the rights of the wife were thus guarded, she 
might have been summarily dismissed, or exposed to the 
most harsh and cruel treatment, or even to death from 
the violence of her husband. 

8. Jesus here returns again to the fundamental principle 
which existed before Moses, before Jacob or Abraham, and 
according to that the law of God was and is, as he has 
already declared (v. 32), that there shall be no divorce 
except for the one crime which destroys the sacredness, 
and is therefore in fact a dissolution, of the marriage re- 



MATTHEW XIX. 13-15. 335 

lation. The remarkable thing here again is the facility 
with which Jesus, even in discussing rules of legislation 
with the most bigoted adherents to the letter of the law, 
goes behind specific rules, and rests his doctrine on the 
substantial reality of things. " Christ taught, as the men 
of his day remarked, on an authority very different from 
that of the scribes. Not even on his own authority. He 
did not claim that his words should be recognized because 
he said them, but because they were true. ' If I say the 
truth, why do ye not believe me ? '" — F. W. Eobertson. 

10 — 12. The conversation which follows took place (Mark 
x. 10) in the house, and was addressed particularly to the 
disciples. " If," say they, " the case of a man is so," i. e. 
if the law and his liability under it are such, " it is better 
for a man not to marry." To this remark of theirs Jesus 
assents with particular reference, we may suppose, to the 
hardships and persecutions which his followers must endure 
in those times. Still, he adds, this rule of celibacy is not 
one of universal application. None but those to whom 
the power has been given, 11, are able to bear it; and 
of those to whom it has been given, some, 12, are by 
nature free from the passions which make a life of con- 
tinence without marriage difficult to them, some by hard- 
ships and privations are made so, while others from their 
own high motives and convictions rise above the control 
of the passions, and cheerfully put aside all thought of 
these domestic relations for the kingdom of Heaven's sake, 
i. e. that they may give themselves entirely to the ad- 
vancement of that kingdom. 



Christ Blessing the Children. 

13-15. The beautiful incident related here and Mark 
x. 13-16, of Jesus, Avhen he took little children into 
his arms, and put his hands upon them, and blessed them, 
shows the relation which he looks on them as sustaining 



336 MATTHEW XIX. 16-22. 

towards himself. The disciples would have sent them 
away as too young for his adoption. But with a degree 
of displeasure which he seldom manifested, he commanded 
them not to forbid, but to let the little ones come to him ; 
for, said he, of such is the kingdom of Heaven. In saying 
this, he used words which are not confined to those then 
present, but which reach forward, indicating his relation 
to all little children, and * coming, a gracious invitation, 
to all parents and guardians who would consecrate their 
children to him by the waters of Christian baptism and 
the processes of Christian culture. " All gifts of God," 
says Roos, " do not enter by the understanding into the 
soul." " Not only," says Alford, in his ' notes on Mark 

x. 14, "is Infant Baptism justified, but it is the 

normal pattern of all baptism; none can enter 
God's kingdom except as an infant. In adult baptism 

we strive to secure that state of simplicity and 

childlikeness, which in the infant we have ready and un- 
doubted to our hands." 

The Young Man who came to Jesus. 

16-22. The young man here, who was a ruler (Luke 
xviii. 18), and who in his eagerness to see Jesus (Mark 
x. 17) came running to him, and kneeled before him, was 
probably an amiable, well-meaning young man, susceptible 
of moral and religious impressions, who had carefully ob- 
served the rules of a conventional morality, and who, 
not finding in them the peace of mind which he sought, 
came to Jesus with the expectation, as Mr. Norton has 
said, that he "would enjoin, for instance, some unusual 
austerity, some long-continued exercise of fasting and 
prayer, or some peculiar vow, or some extraordinary alms- 
giving, or some large gift to the treasury of the temple, 
or some other definite act or course of conduct of a like 
character, by the performance of which he might assure 



MATTHEW XIX. 16 - 22. 337 

himself of eternal life." He was probably sincere, and, 
as he supposed, very much in earnest. The fact of his 
using the expression eternal life, shows that he was not 
wholly superficial in his ideas. Jesus in reply to his 
question, by the words, " Why callest thou me good ? " 
or rather, " Why askest thou me respecting what is good ? " 
"No one is good, but God alone" (Mark x. 18), turns his 
attention first of all to the infinite Source of all goodness. 
Then, as a practical test of his fidelity to God, he says 
to him, If thou really desirest to enter into life, keep the 
commandments. Which ? he asks in reply, and with sur- 
prise, as if he had expected something more, and doubted 
whether he had not misapprehended the answer. Jesus 
specifies the moral precepts of the Decalogue. The young 
man, as if wondering and amazed at the easiness of the 
terms, replies in a tone which shows how little he under- 
stood what it was to observe the commandments in their 
thorough and spiritual application, as Jesus had already 
expounded them in his Sermon on the Mount. These, 
he says, I have always kept. But is there not something 
more still wanting ? he asks, not with self-complacency, 
but from a secret uneasiness, and a conviction that some- 
thing is still wanting to secure his peace. Jesus, looking 
upon him (Mark x. 21) with an expression of love as 
he saw where his weakness lay, applied at once the test 
which should reveal to him the fatal defect in his charac- 
ter. Yes, one thing is wanting (Mark x. 21), and if thou 
wouldst be perfect, go and sell whatsoever thou hast, and 
give to the poor; and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, 
and come, take up the cross, and follow me. The sad- 
ness and grief caused by these words prove that the young 
man came to Jesus, as he believed, with an honest pur- 
pose ; but they prove also that the one essential condition 
of discipleship, the readiness to give up everything at the 
call of duty and of God, was lacking, and that this one 
want was undermining all his virtues. The one thing 

29 U 



338 MATTHEW XIX. 23-26. 

which he lacked was not, that he did not sell all his goods 
and give them to the poor, but that there was something 
which he valued more than his allegiance to God. The 
outward test revealed the inward want, and this inward 
want, loving the things of God less than the things of 
the world, was the fatal defect which Jesus in thus bring- 
ing it to his knowledge would have him supply. " It is 
not here commanded," says Clement of Alexandria, "as 
some readily receive, to cast away our possessions and 
separate ourselves from them ; but to drive out of the 
soul its idea of riches, its diseased passion and longing 
for them, the anxieties which are the thorns that choke 
the seed of life." While the words of Jesus revealed the 
young man to himself, they were also something more 
than a test. They show what was a necessary condition 
of discipleship in that day. What could a young man 
do with his riches then as a follower of Jesus ? Must 
they not have been almost of necessity a fatal encum- 
brance ? There is nothing to show that the condition was 
to be a general one. As Lord Bacon has said, " But 
sell not all thou hast, except thou come and follow me ; 
that is, except thou have a vocation, wherein thou may est 
do as much good, with little means, as with great." — Fur- 
ness's Thoughts, &c, p. 167. 

Hard for the Eich to enter Christ's Kingdom. 

23-26. The words here are suggested by the young 
man who went sorrowfully away from Jesus, because he 
had great possessions, and therefore apply primarily to 
those who are outwardly rich. Jesus looked on this young 
man as the representative of a class, and saw in him how 
difficult it was for those encumbered by wealth to give 
themselves up entirely to him. For in those days it 
was only by leaving all that they could become his follow- 
ers, and thus enter the kingdom of Heaven. And at all 



MATTHEW XIX. 23-26. 339 

times, though not always perhaps to the same extent, 
there are peculiar temptations and perils connected with 
the enjovment of great wealth, and however shining the ex- 
amples of humble, self-forgetting, and self-sacrificing fidelity 
among the rich, the Saviour's words still apply, as a fear- 
ful and needed admonition, to those who in the midst of 
their earthly abundance are in danger of neglecting the 
higher wants and interests of the soul. But the words 
apply also with a more searching power to all, whether 
rich or poor, who (Mark x. 2-4) trust in riches, i. e. whose 
heart is in them. They are the opposite of the "poor" 
(Luke vi. 20) and "the poor in spirit" (Matthew v. 3). 
The words in their more extended meaning apply to a 
state of mind. In the kingdom of God, every individual, 
being merely a steward of God, and viewing himself as 
such, has renounced all his possessions, and having con- 
secrated them to God holds them subject to his disposal. 
In this sense the beggar may be rich, cleaving to his bit 
of a possession, and striving for more, while the possessor 
of wealth, renouncing all, is poor. So in the dangerous 
meaning of the word, a man without money may be rich, 
when his heart is enamored of his own virtues, genius, 
artistic tastes, intellectual attainments and capabilities, or 
anything else which his self-love may appropriate as his 
own. In respect to all such it may be said, that it is 
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than 
for them to enter the kingdom of God. The proverb, as 
verse 26 proves, indicates, not an impossibility, but a very 
great difficulty. The amazement and consternation of the 
disciples exhibited by the question, AVho then shall be 
saved? show how unprepared they were for principles of 
conduct so severe. Jesus comforts them somewhat by the 
assurance, that, though this is impossible with men, still 
all things are possible with God. 



i 



340 MATTHEW XIX. 27-30. 

27-29. — Gaining by Renouncing. 

27 - 30. Peter's state of mind may have been one of 
self-complacent confidence, when he recollects that he and 
his fellow-disciples had given up everything, and asks what 
is to be their reward ; what shall be to us ? Perhaps, 
after recovering a little from the astonishment occasioned 
by the severity of the doctrine just announced, which at 
first had seemed to leave no room for hope to any one, 
and • recollecting what sacrifices he and his fellow-disciples 
had made, his mind recurs to the command in verse 21, 
and the promise there of treasure in heaven; and in a 
sudden burst of feeling, with too keen an eye to the re- 
ward, he exclaims, Lo! we have left all and followed 
thee ; how then shall it be with us ? or, what shall be 
our portion ? In order to understand the reply of Jesus, 
we must transfer our thoughts into these Oriental forms 
of speech, or translate them into our more literal and 
prosaic dialect. In the regeneration may be joined with 
either branch of the sentence, but belongs, we think, rather 
to the second than the first. Verily I say unto you, 
that ye who have followed me, shall in the regeneration, 
when the Son of man sits upon his throne, also sit on 
twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel ; i. e. 
in the new order of things which shall prevail when my 
religion is established, and I shall rule among men, then 
shall ye also who have followed me now rule with me 
as my representatives in the advancement of my king- 
dom, i. e. of my religion, through the world. He may 
possibly allude here, as in xvi. 28, to the destruction of 
Jerusalem, as the decisive moment when the old religion 
shall be overthrown, and the new established in its place, 
with a glance forward to yet higher scenes of kingly glory. 
In verse 29, the thought is carried into the future world 
with greater distinctness. All who have made sacrifices 
on my account shall (Mark x. 30) receive an hundred- 



MATTHEW XIX. 341 

fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, 
and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions, 
and in the world to come, eternal life. But how can 
they receive in brothers, sisters, and mothers, an hundred- 
fold ? We must look for a deeper meaning than that 
which lies upon the surface. As a man abounding in 
wealth is in the best and spiritual sense of the word poor, 
if his heart is not bound up in his riches ; as in the bad 
sense of the word he is rich who in the midst of his 
poverty clings with all his heart to the little which he 
has and lusts for more ; so do we in a still different sense, 
really receive, not in proportion to what we outwardly 
possess, but in proportion to what we are able to appro- 
priate and enjoy. They therefore whose souls are born 
into the higher life of the Gospel of Christ, shall, in 
their renovated affections, desires, and powers of thought 
and emotion, enjoy an hundred-fold more than before even 
here in their houses, fields, and friends. To them alone 
can it be said now in this present time, "All things are 
yours" (1 Cor. iii. 21), while in the world to come they 
shall inherit eternal life. 



NOTES. 

Asd it came to pass, that, when Jesus had finished these 
sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of 
2 Judaea, beyond Jordan. And great multitudes followed him ; 
and he healed them there. 



1. When Jesus had finished yond Jordan," which would allow 

these sayings] These words in- though it does not oblige us to 

dicate a connection and complete- suppose that Jesus was employed 

ness in what he had been saying in at that time on both sides of the 

the previous chapter. Jordan. Jordan] the 

into the coasts of Judaea, he- Jordan. Our translators evidently 

yond Jordan] Mark (x. l)says, did not understand the use of the 

u Into the coasts of Judaea, and be- definite article in Greek. Aecord- 
29* 



34:2 



MATTHEW XIX. 



The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and say- 3 
ing unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for 
every cause ? And he answered and said unto them, Have 4 
ye not read, that he, which made them at the beginning, made 
them male and female ; and said, " For this cause shall a 5 
man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife ; and 
they twain shall be one flesh " ? Wherefore they are no more 6 
twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined to- 



ing to Bengel and Winer, the highest 
authorities on this subject, " there 
is scarcely an instance in the Scrip- 
tures where the article is redun- 
dant," and it is " utterly impossible 
that the ai-ticle should be omitted 
where it is decidedly necessary, or 
employed where it is quite super- 
fluous." " Opos can never denote 
the mountain, nor to opos a moun- 
tain." Yet this distinction is con- 
stantly overlooked in our English 
version. Often, as in the case here, 
the omission of the article is of little 
consequence ; but usually it implies 
something which adds to the life- 
like character of the expression. 
In Matt. v. 1, it is quite a different 
thing to say, as it is in the Greek, 
" he went up into the mountain," 
from what it is to say, as in our 
version, " he went up into a moun- 
tain." " Ye call me the Master, and 
the Lord; and ye say well," (John 
xiii. 13,) is much more forcible and 
graphic than with the omission of 
the article as in our version. So 
in Matt, xviii. 17, " Let him be to 
thee as the (not a) heathen man and 
the publican; " in John iii. 10, "Art 
thou the (not a) Master of Israel, and 
knowest not these things ; " Matt. 
xxvi. 26, "And as they were eating, 
Jesus took the bx*ead," i. e. the bread 
which had been specially provided 
for the purpose, just as in the fol- 
lowing verse he took '■'■the cup;" 
John i. 21, "Art thou the Prophet?" 
i. e. the prophet predicted by Moses 
and expected as the Messiah, not 
as in our version, " that prophet;" 
Matt. i. 23, " Behold, the virgin shall 
conceive," not a virgin; Matt. xii. 
35, " The (not a) good man, out of 
the good treasure of the heart, bring- 



eth forth good things; and the (not 
an) evil man," &c. ; Matt. xiii. 3, 
"The (not a) sower went forth to 
sow," i. e. the Son of man ; John 
xiii. 5, "He poureth water into the 
(not a) basin," that usually stood 
there for use. These matters are 
not of great importance, but the 
use of the article in the New Tes- 
tament well deserves the attention 
of the critical student. 
3. for every cause] upon every 
pretence. Josephus gives this sense 
to the law, and owns that he di- 
vorced his wife, " not being pleased 
with her manners and behavior." 
Antiq. IV. 5. And said] 

And he said, i. e. Jesus said, using 
the words to be found in Gen. ii. 
24. and they twain 

shall be one flesh] Here is de- 
scribed the peculiarity of the mar- 
riage relation, that which distin- 
guishes it from all other relations 
of interest or friendship. " They 
are two," says Stier, " and yet no 
longer two: this is, in the shortest 
and profoundest expression, the 
mystery of marriage, the great mys- 
tery whose further typical signifi- 
cance the Apostle Paul opens to us 
in Eph. v. 31, 32. The bodily fel- 
lowship is not merely the basis of 
marriage, but also that which is 
alone essential to it, which may 
indeed, and in a certain sense, 
should be sweetened and glorified 
by friendship of soul, being super- 
added to it, but which subsists as 
marriage apart from that." " This 
bodily union," says Olshausen, 
" when it is founded on an ante- 
cedent combination of soul and 
spirit, is the very summit and flower 
of all union and communion, and 



MATTHEW XIX. 



43 



7 gether, let no man put asunder. They say unto him, TThy 

did Moses, then, command to give a -writing of divorcement 

s and to put her away ? He saith uuto them. Moses, because 
of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your 

9 wives ; but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto 

• you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornica- 
tion, and shall marry another, committeth adultery ; and whoso 

io marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. His 

disciples say unto him. If the case of the man be so with his 

n wife, it is not good to many. But he said unto them, All men 

12 cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For 
there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their moth- 
er's womb ; and there are some eunuchs, which were made 
eunuchs of men ; and there be eunuchs, which have made 
themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of Heaven's sake. He 
that is able to receive it, let him receive it. 

13 Then were there brought unto him little children, that he 
should put his hands on them, and pray ; and the disciples re- 



for this very reason forms the con- 
dition of the continuance of the 
whole human race. It is owing to 
the holy nature of this bodily union 
that it is to be considered indisso- 
luble, as one which man cannot, 
and which only God can, dissever." 
9. And whoso mar- 
rieth her which is put away 
doth commit adultery] The 
point of this prohibition is brought 
out by the way in which Josepnus 
expounds the Jewish law of divorce. 
" He that desires to be divorced.'' 
he says, " for any cause whatso- 
ever, (and many such causes happen 
among men,) let him in writing give 
assurance that he will never usVher 
as his wife any more; for by this 
means she may be at liberty to 
marry another husband." This 
temptation to be divorced in order 
to marry again Jesus cuts off by his 
severe prohibition. By every pos- 
sible means he would make the 
marriage union inviolable and in- 
dissoluble. By the finer affections 
which he would cherish in human 
hearts, by the purer morals flowing 
out from righteous affections, by- 
more delicate and generous acts, 



by the sanctities of heaven thrown 
over the marriage tie and all the 
domestic relations, he would make 
a Christian home more sacred and 
endearing in its relations than any 
other home had ever been. In this 
as in other things the world, even 
the Christian world, though slowly 
rising towards his idea, is still far be- 
low it. Lawgivers still and perhaps 
necessarily allow his precepts to be 
violated on account of the hardness 
of men's hearts and the low state of 
morals among them. 
12. He that is able to receive 
it, let him receive it] Jesns 
makes allowance for differences of 
temperament and constitution. He 
does not ask the same things of all. 
Though he requires self-renuncia- 
tion in all his followers, he does not 
require that all shall show it by the 
same acts. 13. And the 

disciples rebuked them] Ee- 
buked not the children, but those 
who were bringing them. 
But the disciples] •• The greater 
part of whom,"' says Bengel. u ap- 
pear to have been unmarried: and 
unmarried men, unless they are 
humble-minded, are not so kind to 



3 ±4 



MATTHEW XIX. 



bilked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and for- 14 
bid them not, to come unto me 5 for of such is the kingdom 
of Heaven. And he laid his hands on them, and departed 15 
thence. 

And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, 16 
what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life ? And n 
he said unto him, Why callest thou me good ? there is none 
good but one, that is, God. But if thou wilt enter into life, 
keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which ? Jesus is 
said, " Thou shalt do no murder ; Thou shalt not commit 
adultery ; Thou shalt not steal ; Thou shalt not bear false 
witness ; Honor thy father and thy mother ; " and, " Thou 19 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The young man saith unto 20 



infants." 14. Suffer little 

children] Suffer the little children, 
— the little ones to come to me. Bet- 
ter as in the original with the article. 
Jesus has just been defending the 
law of marriage. Here, as a branch 
of the same subject, he is upholding 
the claims of children, by rebuking 
those who would keep them from 
him, and by taking them into his 
arms, laying his hands upon them, 
and blessing them. 
for of such is the kingdom of 
Heaven] There is nothing more 
beautiful m the New Testament 
than the relation of Jesus to little 
children and his sympathy with 
them. What do words like these 
teach in regard to them? If his 
kingdom is made up of those who 
are like them, what shall we say 
of them, and of the doctrine of in- 
nate depravity? That doctrine is 
found in metaphysical systems of 
divinity, but nowhere is it taught 
or indicated by the words or the 
acts, of Jesus. An hereditary lia- 
bility to sin, coming out with the 
development of our natures, and 
showing itself in times of tempta- 
tion, we all of us may feel, and 
should be constantly on our guard 
against. "Not," says Richter, "the 
children must become as you, but 
vice versa, you must become as the 
children." " If Ave have to do with 
men, then the rule is, Be no child; 
trust, look to — whom ? But if we 



have to do with God, then it cannot 
often enough be repeated : Be only 
a child, — follow the call, trust to 
the promise, take the gift, obey the 
word, all as if thou didst let thyself 
be lifted, carried, comforted, bless- 
ed." Stier. 16. eternal 
life] This expression occurs here 
and in the corresponding passages 
in Mark and Luke for the first time. 
It is used at v. 29 of this chapter, 
Luke xviii. 30, and only once again, 
xxv. 46, in the first three Gospels. 
It is difficult to ascertain the precise 
meaning in which it is used by the 
young man, though it undoubtedly 
is intended to denote a future state 
of blessedness. , 17. Why 
callest thou me good ?] Accord- 
ing to Tischendorf, the reading 
should be, Why ashesl thou me re- 
specting the good? One is good: but 
if thou ivishest, §c. This agrees with 
the reading in the Curetonian Syriac 
Gospels. "One is good. One only is 
good in the absolute sense of the 
word, uniting in himself all perfec- 
tions. The natural inference from 
this language of Jesus, is 'that by it 
he meant to disclaim for himself 
this absolute goodness, which ex- 
eludes, not only all sin, but the pos- 
sibility of being tempted. " For 
God cannot be tempted with evil." 
(James i. 13.) " Then was Jesus 
led up of the spirit into the wilder- 
ness to be tempted of the devil." 
(Matt. iv. 1.) " For in that he him.- 



MATTHEW XIX. 



345 



hini, All these things have I kept from my youth up; what 

21 lack I yet ? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go 
and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor ; and thou shalt 

22 have treasure in heaven ; and come and follow me. But when 
the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful ; 

23 for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his 

disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly 

24 enter into the kingdom of Heaven. And again I say unto you, 
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than 

25 for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his 
disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, 

26 Who then can be saved ? But Jesus beheld them, and said 
unto them. With men this is impossible; but with God all 

27 things are possible. Then answered Peter, and said unto 

him, Behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee ; what 

28 shall we have therefore ? And Jesus said unto them, Verily 



self hath suffered being tempted, he 
is able to succor them that are 
tempted." (Heb. ii. 18.) 
20 from my youth up] These 
words are omitted by Tischendorf 
as not contained in the best manu- 
scripts. The omission is an im- 
provement in the passage. It is a 
little harsh to write, The young 
man. 6 veavlaKos — the youth — 
said, All these have I kept from 
my youth up, i< veorrjTos fiov. 
21. go and sell that 
thou hast] ''It is a command, 
not a counsel; necessary, not op- 
tional : but particular, not universal, 
accommodated to the idiosyncrasy 
of his soul, to whom it was ad- 
dressed. For many followed Jesus 
to whom he did not give this com- 
mand. He may be perfect, who 
still possesses wealth ; he may give 
all to the poor, who is very far from 
perfection. Our Lord's words laid 
an obligation on the man who offer- 
ed himself of his own accord, and 
that so unreservedly. If the Lord 
had said, Thou art rich, and art too 
fond of thy riches, the young man 
would have denied it ; wherefore, 
instead of so doing, he demands 
immediately a direct proof." Ben- 
gel. ' 22. sorrowful] be- 



cause he could not keep his great 
possessions, and at the same time 
follow Christ. These divided affec- 
tions are always a source of anxiety 
and sorrow. ' 23. hardly] 

with difficulty. They are too much 
taken up with present comforts to 
think of better things; but if, as in 
this case they think of them and 
really desire to possess them, they 
are too much attached to their 
present comforts and possessions to 
make the needed sacrifice. 

24. easier for a camel] The 
similar proverb of the elephant is 
said to be familiar in the Koran 
and the Talmud. " Perhaps thou 
art one of those who can make an 
elephant go through the eye of a 
needle." The substitution which 
is sometimes proposed of KafiiXov, 
meaning a cable, for Kafirfkov, a 
camel, — camilon for camelon, — is 
entirely without authority. 

26.' with God all things are 
possible] So Mark ix. 23, All 
things are possible to him that be- 
lieveth. 27. forsaken 

all] " The all which the Apostles 
had left was not in all cases con- 
temptible. The sons of Zebedee had 
hired servants (Mark i. 20), and Levi 
(Matthew) could give a great feast in 



346 



MATTHEW XIX. 



I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regenera- 
tion, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, 
ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes 
of Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or breth- 29 



his house. But whatever it was, it 
was their alV Alford. 28. 

in the regeneration] As the king- 
dom of Heaven is used to express the 
condition of a Christian individual, 
of the Christian commonwealth, and 
of the redeemed above (xvi. 27, 28), 
so regeneration, being born again, 
refers to the act by which the indi- 
vidual soul, or the Christian com- 
munity, are born into the kingdom 
of Heaven. Among the Stoics this 
word expressed the periodic reno- 
vation of the earth when in the 
spring it revived from its winter 
death. Josephus (Antiq. XL 3. 9) 
speaks of the restoration of the Jews 
after the Captivity as " the regain- 
ing and regeneration of the coun- 
try." The word is used only twice 
in the New Testament. In Titus iii. 
5, it plainly refers to the new birth 
of the individual, when it is awak- 
ened to the higher thought and life 
of the Gospel. In the passage before 
us it refers to the same newness of 
life in its more extended influence 
among men, whether on earth or in 
heaven. " The first seat of the re- 
generation is the soul of man ; but, 
beginning there, and establishing its 
centre there, it extends in ever wi- 
dening circles." " Man is the pres- 
ent subject of the regeneration, 
and of the wondrous transforma- 
tion which it implies; but in that 
day it will have included within its 
limits the whole world of which 
man is the central figure ; and here 
is the reconciliation of the two pas- 
sages, in one of which it is spoken 
of as pertaining to the single soul, 
in the other to the whole redeemed 
creation." Trench's Synonymes of 
the New Testament. In the regen- 
eration is certainly to be joined with 
the second, and not, as in our Bibles, 
with the first, clause of the sentence. 
when the Son of man 
shall sit in the throne of his 
glory, ye also shall sit upon 
twelve thrones, judging the 



twelve trihes of Israel] The 

religion of Jesus is the kingdom of 
Heaven ; where it comes, the Son of 
man comes in his kingdom; where 
it prevails, as it does in the thorough 
regeneration of the soul or of the 
race, there he, as the head of the 
new dispensation, is said to come 
in his glory, to reign or to sit upon 
the throne of his glory, and there, 
he now declares, the Apostles shall 
be associated with him, sitting on 
twelve thrones, and thus under him 
sharing the regal influence and au- 
thority which he is exercising over 
the souls of men, whether in this 
world or the world to come. Dr. 
Palfrey, in his Kelation between 
Judaism and Christianity, pp. 98, 99, 
has well explained this passage: 
" As, adopting the phraseology in 
Daniel (vii. 13, 14), Jesus calls his 
establishment in a moral dominion, 
a sitting upon ' the throne of his 
glory,' so he tells his Apostles, who 
were to be the agents and repre- 
sentatives of his spiritual adminis- 
tration, that they too shall sit on 
thrones. And the .figure is still 
further earned out. There were as 
many Apostles as there had been 
Jewish tribes ; and this coincidence 
is brought to view in the language 
in which they are told that thev are 
to have spiritual rule over God's 
people. The word judge here, as 
often in Scripture (comp. 1 Sam. 
viii. 5, Isa. xl. 23), means simply to 
govern, to exercise sway; not to ad- 
minister law, but to give, to promul- 
gate it, which latter function be- 
longed strictly to the Apostolic office. 
The twelve Apostles together were 
to give law to collective Israel. 
Nothing is said of any such distri- 
bution of power as that each Apos- 
tle should have a tribe for his sep- 
arate jurisdiction. One name of 
Israel regarded collectively was the 
twelve tribes, or the twelve-tribed na- 
tion. (Comp. Acts xxvi. 7.)" The 
twelve, tribes of Israel mean here the 



MATTHEW XIX. 



34- 



ren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or 
lauds, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, and 

30 shall inherit everlasting lite. But many that are first shall 

be last ; and the last shall be first. 



people of God. When the Son of 
man shall sit (active voice) on his 
throne (genitive case), ye shall sit 
(middle voice) on twelve thrones 
(accusative). Greek scholars who 
are curious about such things have 
supposed that they saw in these nice 
distinctions of language an intima- 
tion of the different kinds or degrees 
of power which Jesus and the Apos- 
tles were respectively to exercise. 
When tht Son of man shall sit. the 
active form expressing the act ab- 
solutely, united wirh the genirive, 
on his yiurious throne, as the case 
denoting source or cause, the whole 
expression may seem to represent 
him as sitting independently on his 
throne, while the middle voice with 
something of a passive signification 
and the accusative case, the case of 
direct limitation, give in respect to 
the Apostles the idea of a more lim- 
ited and dependent authority. This 
distinction is indicated by Stier and 
Afford. But it will not' do to lay 
any stress on these nice distinctions 
of language, for such delicate shad- 
ings of expression may be turned in 
almost any direction 'by a fanciful 
or ingenious mind. The distinction 
here "suggested may have been in 
the writer's mind. But in Luke 
xxii. 30, ye shall sit on thrones, 
thrones is in the genitive, and in 
Rev. iv. 2. where" God is repre- 
sented as sitting on his throne, sit- 
ting is put in the middle voice, 
and throne in the accusative case. 
While the preposition remains the 
same, the genitive, dative, and 
accusative cases are used indis- 
criminately (Rev. iv. 9, 10 ; v. 
13: vi. 16; vii. 10: xi. 16). . 
ye shall sit on twelve thrones] 
Figures of speech in the oriental 
languages are carried out more mi- 



nutely than with us. Where we 
should say, " I am exposed to death 
among those who are like enraged 
lions,*' David hi a far more pictur- 
esque and expressive way says: 
"My soul is among lions: and I 
lie even among them that are set 
on fire, even the sons of men, whose 
teeth are spear and arrows, and 
their tongue a sharp sword." (Ps. 
Mi. 44.) No one thinks of con- 
struing this literally. Where we 
might describe the great and terri- 
ble calamities impending over a na- 
tion as a dark and tempestuous 
night overwhelming the land and 
shutting out the light of heaven, 
our Saviour in accordance with 
modes of expression natural to the 
East, and perfectly well understood 
as figurative, says : " Immediately 
alter the tribulation of those days 
shall the sun be darkened, and the 
moon shall not give her light, and 
the stars shall fall from heaven, and 
the powers of the heavens shall be 
shaken." (Matt xxiv. 29.) So in 
the passage before us, where we 
might say, In the new order of 
things they shall be united with 
him in his reign over the saints in 
glory, Jesus, in language far more 
impressive and august, but not lit- 
eral, says, " In the regeneration, 
when the Son of man shall sit in 
the throne of his glory, ye also shall 
sit upon twelve thrones, judging the 
twelve tribes of Israel." In this 
way he sets before them their fu- 
ture condition of honor and great- 
ness connected with the thought of 
the more than regal influence which 
they, as his representatives and 
Apostles, are to exercise in advan- 
cing and establishing his kingdom 
among men, and thus ruling over 
them. , 



348 MATTHEW XX. 1-16. 



CHAPTER XX. 

■ 1-16. — The Laborers in the Vineyard. 

1-16. This has seemed to us the most difficult of all the 
parables. Its precise relation to what goes before it is ob- 
scure, and it is quite impossible to show the precise bearing 
of all the incidents, whatever explanation may be adopted. 
It is much easier to overthrow any one of the many inter- 
pretations which have been given, than to supply its place 
by another which is altogether satisfactory. Some, accord- 
ing to Trench, regarding the equal penny to all as the key 
to the parable, say that the lesson here taught is the equal- 
ity of rewards in the kingdom of God. Others make, not 
the equal penny, but the successive hours at which the 
laborers are called, the prominent lesson of the parable. 
Some of these, as Origen and Hilary, suppose the different 
hours apply to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and lastly to 
the Apostles ; others, that they apply first to the Jews and 
then to the Gentiles ; while others suppose that they apply 
to the different periods of life at which the laborers enter on 
the work of the Lord. Luther, as quoted by Stier, says, 
"If we would interpret strictly, we must understand the 
penny of the temporal good, and the favor of the house- 
holder of the eternal good," and he sees quite clearly that 
the murmuring laborers trot away with their penny and are 
damned." Stier assents to this, and asserts that " the penny 
is certainly a temporal good, different from eternal life, only 
not of a mere outward and earthly nature," " the promise 
(1 Tim. iv. 8) of the life that now is." Alford thinks the 
salient point of the parable to be, that " the kingdom of God 



MATTHEAY XX. 1 - 16. 



3-id 



Is of grace, and not of debt ; that they who were called first 
and have labored longest have no more claim upon God 
than those who were called last." Its primary application, 
he thinks, is to the Apostles who had asked the question ; 
and its secondary applications " to all those to whom such 
a comparison of first or last called, will apply," nationally to 
the Jews, individually to those whose call has been in early 
life, as well as to those who are first in point of talents, 
labor," &c. Mr. Livermore, in a few clear and truthful 
words, gives the immediate application of the parable. 
" Peter," he says, " had inquired respecting the rewards of 
discipleship. The Saviour replies, that the Apostles would 
attain the highest honors, next to himself, and that all other 
disciples would receive abundant rewards, both in this life, 
and in that which is to come. But, he adds, do not suppose 
that the earlier converts under the Gospel dispensation will 
on that account be any more meritorious, or better rewarded, 
than those, who, being called later, manifest an equal fidel- 
ity and zeal." "The first as to time and privileges, may 
become inferior to the last, and the last become first." 

In order to understand the parable, we must consider 
carefully its surroundings and the relation in which it stands 
to them. The words (xix. 30, and xx. 16) with which it 
is introduced and ended are so closely connected with it, 
that it plainly must be interpreted so as to be an illustration 
of them. Peter (xix. 27) asks, "What shall we have?" 
Jesus in the two following verses answers the question, and 
then answers the state of mind which had prompted the 
question, and which he evidently intended to rebuke. " Ye, 
and all who have made such sacrifices for me, shall indeed 
be rewarded. But while you seem to yourselves thus 
worthy of honor and reward, it is well for you to remember 
that many who are first shall be last, if in looking too much 
to their reward they allow in themselves a wrong dispo- 
sition and temper of mind." To illustrate this characteristic 
of his kingdom, by which the first are often made last, and 
30 



350 MATTHEW XX. 1-16. 

the last first, he relates a story of a householder, who in 
the morning engaged laborers for a specific sum, and after- 
wards at different hours of the day engaged also other 
laborers to go into his vineyard without any agreement as 
to the exact sum which they were to receive. When the 
day was ended, the laborers were called together, and those 
who came last received each one a penny, which was all 
that had been promised to those who came first. The self- 
ish feelings of those who had labored all the day were 
excited ; they expected for themselves a larger reward than 
had been agreed upon ; and began to murmur because it 
was not given to them. Because of the envious, complain- 
ing spirit which they thus showed, they were rebuked and 
sent away with their penny, while the master evidently 
looked with more favor on those who had modestly received 
his bounty. " So," Jesus adds, repeating emphatically under 
a different form the expression with which the parable had 
been introduced, — " so the last shall be first and the first 
last." The outward distinctions which come from time, 
birth, talent, or labors, and which are most apparent among 
men, must in the reckoning at the end give way to the 
higher distinctions which rest on the condition of the mind 
and character ; so that often they who are first in time, office, 
gifts, accomplishments, or even the length and apparent 
usefulness of their labors, shall in the disclosures of that 
hour be found worthy only of a subordinate place, while 
others who were the least thought of here and who thought 
the least of their own merits, shall then be found among 
the first. 

But what construction is to be put upon the equal penny 
which every one received? It will not do to insist upon 
pressing every minor circumstance of a parable into the 
interpretation. But in this case the equality of the wages 
is brought forward so prominently that it can hardly be 
overlooked. All who were sent into the vineyard, were, 
as faithful laborers, the representatives of those who, through 



MATTHEW XX. 1-16. 351 

the bounty of their Lord, shall alike receive the gift of 
eternal life. But while eternal life is equally bestowed on 
all, they who from their superior services had presumed on 
a superior reward, have thus been cherishing a spirit, which, 
though it may not exclude them from eternal life, will 
nevertheless place them below those who in shorter and less 
conspicuous services have been more meek and lowly in 
heart. 

The substance of the parable is this. While all who 
obey the call of their Master and labor faithfully in Ins vine- 
yard shall equally receive the reward of eternal life, yet if 
any by reason of their pre-eminent place or services here 
presume to look down on others, and selfishly or proudly to 
claim for themselves more than is given to others, they are 
indulging a disposition and temper of mind which must at 
length reverse the present order of precedency, and make 
many who are first last, and last first. The great law of 
our spiritual being, by which pride abases and humility 
exalts, is here held up by the Saviour, and applied to the 
Apostles as a warning against the self-seeking, self-compla- 
cent spirit indicated by the question which Peter has asked 
in their behalf. As Bengel has said, it is in respect to" the 
Apostles, not a prophecy, but a warning. 

While the parable was directly given for the admonition 
of the Apostles, who were evidently presuming too much on 
their place next to the Saviour, and their labors and sacri- 
fices, it after the manner of Jesus lays open a grand princi- 
ple of spiritual advancement and decline which shall stand 
forth a perpetual admonition to all who from their conspic- 
uous position, endowments, or services are in danger of 
cherishing the spirit which is here condemned. It applies 
to the Jews, who as a people prided themselves on account 
of their superior privileges, and who by their pride cut 
themselves off from the high place which they once held. 
It applies as a warning to all who hold distinguished places 
in the Church, or distinguished posts of Christian usefulness 



352 MATTHEW XX. 1-16. 

and honor, to those whose reputation for learning, ability, 
or sanctity gives them a peculiar influence in the Christian 
community, and to all who from their early calling, the 
richness of their gifts, or the abundance and success of their 
labors are tempted to think too highly of themselves, or to 
despise others. "This parable," says Luther, "hits even 
excellent people, nay, it terrifies the greatest saints, and 
therefore Christ holds it up before the Apostles themselves." 
"How many shining stars," says Ramback as quoted by 
Stier, " have already been struck by the tail of the dragon, 
and cast down by pride to the earth." Stier also borrows 
from Herberger a story which, as he says, strikingly 
portrays in an extreme light what Christ here mildly 
represents in a softer light. A monk died, leaving a great 
name for sanctity; a robber who had heard him preach 
repented, ran to confess, but fell on the way and broke his 
neck. A devout man saw both, wept at the death of the 
saint, but rejoiced at that of the robber. Why so ? ' When 
the monk died, the devil took him because of his pride ; 
when the robber broke his neck, angels received his peni- 
tent soul.'" 

A more pertinent illustration of the parable might be 
given. Aran was a follower of Jesus the Crucified, and 
a teacher of his truth in the early days of the Church. 
He labored unsparingly, and saw the work of the Lord 
prospering marvellously in his hands. Thousands of new 
converts honored him as their spiritual father; his name 
was pronounced with loving admiration in many and distant 
lands, and pilgrims came from the remotest parts of the 
earth, that they might profit by his counsels and the 
sanctity of his life. But, unawares to himself, his heart 
was beginning to be elated by the honor and success wftich 
followed him in his labors. He rejoiced, not so much that 
souls were redeemed from their sins, as that they were won 
to Christ through the eloquence of his speech. And so it 
happened, that while his labors and his zeal increased, and 



MATTHEW XX. 1-16. 353 

multitudes more than ever thronged around him, and 
throughout the whole of Christendom he was regarded 
with reverence and wonder, the lowliness and simplicity of 
his own heart were leaving him, and even while he ex- 
claimed, JVon nobis, domine, " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto 
us," pride and vainglory from underneath the very altar 
on which they had been laid in sacrifice whispered to him 
that the glory must indeed be given to God, but that few 
among men had been privileged to do so much for the 
advancement of his name and cause. 

Near him was Garnan, a simple disciple who honored 
Aran as in the hands of God the instrument of his salvation 
from the worship of idols, and who labored among the 
menials of his household, — rejoicing if at any time he 
could lead the trembling pilgrim within the reach of his 
master's influence. His knowledge was the instinct of a 
loving and faithful soul. He was thankful if he could 
revive the drooping hopes of a fellow-servant or bestow a 
cup of water on the fainting traveller, to refresh him after 
the burden and the heat of his journey, — repeating while 
he did it some comforting words of Jesus, or uttering some 
prayer of faith as it came unbidden from his heart. Thus 
day and night, in season and out of season, unnoticed by 
the eye of man, he employs himself thinking only of his 
Master and his Master's work, — praying in his simple way, 
and thus keeping the well-spring of piety alive in his heart, 
but never dreaming that he is doing anything for others, 
and least of all that he is doing anything to help on that 
great movement which is already causing the earth to 
tremble at its coming, and by which the kingdoms of this 
world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and his 
Christ. 

At length the day of persecution arrived. Aran wel- 
comes its approach. Amid the admiration of thousands, 
who greet him almost with plaudits as they witness the 
alacrity with which he gives himself into the hands of his 
30* w 



354 MATTHEW XX. 

persecutors, he goes bravely to the flames, praising and thank- 
ing God for the strength which he has given him, that the 
honors of such a life may not be tarnished nor its influence 
weakened by a mean and cowardly death. Garnan also 
is seized and bidden to make ready. No sympathizing or 
admiring eyes are turned towards him. He thinks of the 
Saviour who died for all, — of the saintly man whom it 
has been his privilege to serve. He hardly remembers 
to pray even for the salvation of his own soul. But he 
prays for his friends, that they may serve God in their 
lives, and glorify him in their death. He prays for lonely 
and trembling ones, that their faith may be strengthened. 
He prays for the kingdom of God, that it may come 
throughout the world. 

The flames encircle them, and at the same moment the 
souls of both escape from their fiery shroud. 

One is canonized in the church, and numbered among 
the starry names which have power to stir men's souls 
through all coming generations. The other, no man ex- 
cept a few of his fellow-servants cared for or remembered, 
and soon his name had utterly perished from all human 
records. Beyond the veil, angels indeed received Aran 
as one of the " many " who have been " called " into the 
kingdom of God ; but Garnan they surround with brighter 
gleams of joy as they bear him with songs of joy and place 
him among the few whom their Lord has "chosen" to 
lean upon his bosom. So the last shall be first, and the 
first last. 5jL(&^ 



\ 



NOTES. 

For the kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is an 
householder, which went out early in the morning to hire la- 

1. For the kingdom of Heav- an householder] The compari- 

en is like unto a man that is son is not with the householder 



MATTHEW XX. 



355 



2 borers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the 
laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 

3 And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing 

4 idle in the market-place, and said unto them, Go ye also into 
the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And 

5 they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and 

6 ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he 
went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, 

7 Why stand ye here all the day idle ? They say unto him, Be- 
cause no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also 
into the vineyard ; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye re- 

8 ceive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith 
unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, 



alone, but with the whole action of 
the householder as related in the 
parable. went out early in 

the morning to hire laborers] 

Morier, in his Second Journey 
through Persia, p. 265, mentions 
having noted in the market-place 
at Hamadan, a custom like that 
alluded to in the parable : " Here 
we observed every morning before 
the sun rose, that a, numerous band 
of peasants were collected with 
spades in their hands, waiting to be 
hired for the day to work in the 
surrounding fields. This custom 
struck me as a most happy illustra- 
tion of our Saviour's parable, par- 
ticularly when, passing by the same 
place late in the day, we found 
others standing idle, and remem- 
bered his words, ' Why stand ye 
here all the day idle ? ' " Trench. 
his vineyard] " Vine- 
yard is, since Isa. v. the similitude 
kept up by Christ to denote God's 
institution upon earth, his people, 
his kingdom." Stier. 2. 

a penny a day] The penny was 
equal to about sixteen cents of our 
coin. " He promises the due re- 
ward, the denarius, which also in 
Tacitus still appears as the usual 
ample day's wage for working 
soldiers. But if those who are 
called at the very first begin dis- 
trustfully to ask, How much am 
I certain to get? then, indeed, it 
is not good, and they are to be 
warned of the unhappy end of such 



a course." Stier. 3. about 

the third hour] The third, sixth, 
ninth, and eleventh hours corre- 
spond to our 9 a.m., 12 m., 3 P.M., 
and 5 p.m. " These would not, ex- 
cept just at the equinoxes, be exactly 
the hours; for the Jews, as well as 
the Greeks and Romans, divided the 
natural day, that between sunrise 
and sunset, into twelve equal parts 
(John xi. 9), which parts must of 
course have been considerably 
longer in summer than in winter." 
" Probably the day was also divided 
into four larger parts here indi- 
cated, just as the Roman night 
into four watches, and indeed the 
Jewish no less." Trench. 
7. because no man hath hired 
us] It appears that all went as 
soon as they were called. They, 
therefore, are not blamed by the 
question, Why stand ye here all the 
day idle? 8. So when 

even was come] In paying the 
laborers at the close of the day, 
a merciful provision of the Jewish 
law was followed : " At his day 
thou shalt give him his hire, neither 
shall the sun go down upon it, for 
he is poor, and setteth his heart 
upon it." (Deut. xxiv. 15.) " The 
wages of him that is hired shall not 
abide with thee all night until the 
morning." (Lev. xix. 13.) Job (vii. 
2) implies a similar custom. The 
evening of each day resembles the 
evening of life, and the reckoning 
at the close of the day stands here 



35G 



MATTHEW XX. 



beginning from the last, unto the first. And when they came 9 
that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every 
man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that 10 
they should have received more ; and they likewise received 
every man a penny. And when they had received it, they 11 
murmured against the good man of the house, saying, These 12 
last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal 
unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. 
But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no 13 
wrong ; didst not thou agree with me for a penny ? Take that 
thine is, and go thy way ; I will give unto this last even as 14 
unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine 15 
own ? Is thine eye evil, because I am good ? So the last 16 
shall be first ; and the first, last. For many be called, but few 
chosen.^ * J g 

And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples 17 
apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to 18 
Jerusalem ; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the 
chief priests and unto the scribes ; and they shall condemn 






as a symbol of the reckoning at the 
close of life. 12. and heat 

of the day] rov Kavcruva. The 
word is used in the Septuagint, Hos. 
xiii. 15, for the dry, burning east 
wind, so fatal to all vegetable life. 
The word is found in the New Tes- 
tament oidy here (Luke xii. 55), 
and in James i. 11, where it is ap- 
propriately rendered " burning heaV 
13. Friend] " At first 
sight a friendly word merely, as- 
sumes a more solemn aspect when 
we recollect that it is used in xxii. 
12 to the guest who had not the 
wedding garment, and in chapter 
xxvi. 50 by our Lord to Judas." 
Alford. 17. And 

Jesus going up to Jerusalem] 
The incidents and conversations 
which begin with chapter xix., and 
which probably took place on the 
east side of the Jordan, end with 
the sixteenth verse of this chapter. 
The expression going up to Jerusa- 
lem refers to the remarkable as- 
cent from the valley of the Jordan. 
" There is no such second gash," 
it is said, " on the surface of the 



earth " as " the depression of the 
Jordan valley." In a distance of 
only about twenty miles from the 
Dead Sea, which is 1,312 feet below 
the Mediterranean, to Jerusalem, 
which is 2,200 feet above it, is a 
perpendicular ascent of more than 
3,500 feet. How long Jesus had re- 
mained in the valley of the Jordan, 
on its eastern side, we have no 
means of ascertaining, but probably 
not more than a day or two. He had 
set out from Galilee, to go directly 
up to Jerusalem through Samaria ; 
but when the Samaritans (Luke ix. 
53) refused to receive him, he prob- 
ably turned to the left, crossed the 
Jordan, and came by a less direct 
route through the Peraea. 
18. unto the chief priests and 
unto the scribes] The appella- 
tion chief priests seems to have 
been a common one at that time. 
According to Bengel, it was the 
especial province of the Scribes to 
know the written law, as it was of 
the priests to decide and give sentence 
in accordance with it. " Scribis] 
quorum erat scientia; uti pordificwa 



MATTHEW XX. 



357 



19 him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, to mock, 
and to scourge, and to crucify him ; and the third day he shall 
rise again. 

20 Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children, with 
her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. 

21 And he said unto her, What wilt thou ? She saith unto him, 
Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right 

22 hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus 
answered and said, Ye knew not what ye ask. Are ye able to 



sententia." 19. and shall 

deliver him to the Gentiles] 

Observe in these two verses the 
minuteness and exactness of the 
prediction. " The Son of Man shall 
be delivered to the chief priests and 
scribes, and they shall condemn 
him to death.'* as they did : but 
having no authority to execute the 
sentence, " they shall deliver him 
to the Gentiles," — to the Roman 
governor and soldiers, — ''to mock 
and scourge and crucify him ; and 
on the third day he shall be raised 
up."' Luke, who records this pre- 
diction with some slight variations, 
and who^e language, even more 
than that of Matthew, indicates the 
solemnity and emphasis with which 
our Lord spoke, and the amazement 
of the disciples, adds (xviii. 34) 
that they nevertheless did not un- 
derstand one word of what he had 
said respecting his death and resur- 
rection. They were so intently 
fixed upon the thought that he was 
now speedily to establish his king- 
dom on earth, that they were utterly 
blind to any other idea, and could 
not receive it. This state of mind, 
which is mentioned here only by 
Luke, who does not relate the fol- 
lowing incident, will account for the 
otherwise improbable request which 
is afterwards made by two of the 
disciples (Mark x. 35), through 
their mother. 20. the 

mother of Zebedee's children] 
the mother of Zebedee's sons with her 
sons. Salome (Matt, xxvii. 56 com- 
pared with Mark xv. 40). " From 
the adoration and discourse of this 
woman, it is evident that she enter- 
tained a high idea of our Lord's 



majesty, but possessed very little 
knowledge." " The flesh,"' says 
Luther, in reference to this chapter, 
" is always for becoming glorious 
before it is crucified; exalted before 
it is humbled." desiring 

a certain thing of hhn] asking 
something which she does not specify 
at first, as if she were a little diffi- 
dent about making the request, and 
half conscious that it ought not to 
be made, and that a refusal was not 
improbable or unjust. 21. 

may sit, the one on thy right 
hand, and the other on the left] 
that they may occupy the highest 
places in his kingdom, which she 
and they believed was speedily to 
appear. (Luke xix. 11.) 
22. Ye know not what ye ask] 
Jesus replies to them, not to her, 
'• Ye know not what it is that ye 
are asking." Some have supposed 
that in this reply Jesus refers to the 
position at his right hand and his 
left when he should be upon the 
cross. But he refers rather to the 
utter incompatibility of their re- 
quest with the spirit and nature of 
his kingdom, and their entire igno- 
rance of what, from the nature of 
his kingdom, must be involved in 
their request. Are ye able] 

They, still ignorant of the whole 
matter, and supposing that the ques- 
tions of Jesus which involved so 
much self-renunciation and suffer- 
ing were some easy conditions on 
Avhich their request would be 
granted reply hastily that they are 
able. Yet even as Jews they ought 
to have taken the words of Jesus 
in a different and profounder sense. 
" The phrase that goes before this, 



358 



MATTHEW XX. 



drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with 
the baptism that I am baptized with ? They say unto him, 
We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink in- 23 
deed of my cup ; and be baptized with the baptism that I am 
baptized with ; but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is 
not mine to give ; but it shall be given to them for whom it is 

prepared of my Father. And when the ten heard it, they 24 

were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But 25 
Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes 
of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are 









concerning the cup, is taken from 
divers places of Scripture, where 
sad and grievous things are com- 
pared to draughts of a bitter cup." 
" So cruel a thing was the baptism 
of the Jews, that not with- 
out cause, partly by reason of the 
burying, as I may call it, under 
water, and partly by reason of the 
cold, it used to signify the most 
cruel kind of death." Lightfoot. 
" To be overwhelmed with grief, to 
be immersed in affliction, will be 
found common in most languages." 
Campbell. u Afflictions and calam- 
ities in the sacred writings are often 
compared to waves and billows by 
which the suffering are over- 
whelmed." Ps. lxix. 1, 2; Isa. xliii. 
2. Kuinoel. Being baptized into 
the death of Christ is, in its spiritual 
sense, a favorite figure with St. 
Paul. (Rom. vi. 3, 4 ; Col. ii. 12.) 
They say to him, " We are able." 
" The one of these brethren was the 

first of the apostles to be 

baptized with the baptism of blood 
(Acts xii. 1, 2); the other had the 
longest experience among them of 
a life of trouble and persecution." 
Alford. 23. Ye shall 

drink indeed of my cup] We 
may suppose that Jesus made this 
reply to them, that they should in- 
deed share with him his sufferings 
even to the baptism of death with 
a solemnity of emphasis which 
showed how much more meaning 
he attached to the words than they 
had done. but to sit on 

my right hand, and on my 
left, is not mine to give] As 
the majesty of Jesus shines out 



from his humility, so .here his hu- 
mility shows itself in his majesty. 
Though by the words, to sit on my 
right and on my left, he admits that 
he holds a royal office in a more 
than earthly kingdom, still he ac- 
knowledges one loftier and greater 
than himself, without whose au- 
thority and consent it was not for 
him to appoint to the highest places 
of honor and of power in his king- 
dom. That " is not mine to give, 
but [it is for those] for whom it has 
been prepared by my Father." 

it is prepared] the per- 
fect tense is here used to describe 
a future event in its relation to 
another event still farther in the 
future. but] aXX ois* 

" The conjunction aAAa, when, as 
in this place, it is not followed by a 
verb, but by a noun or pronoun, is 
generally to be understood as of the 
same import with el fir), unless, ex- 
cept; otherwise the verb must be 
supplied as is done here in the 
common version." Campbell. We 
doubt whether aX\d is used in this 
way like our but to mean unless or 
except. The most natural transla- 
tion of this passage, and that which 
retains most exactly the Greek 
idiom, is, " It is not mine to give, 
but [is] for whomsoever it has been 
prepared by my Father." 
25. the princes of the Gentiles 
exercise dominion over them] 
" the rulers of the Gentiles [of the 
nations] lord it [rule] over them, 
and the great [the imperial] ones 
exercise authority over them; " i. e. 
over the rulers. Among the Gen- 



MATTHEW XX. 



359 



26 great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so 
among you; but whosoever -will be g.eat among you, let him 

27 be your minister ; and whosoever will be chief among you, 

28 let him be your servant ; even as the Son of man came not to 
be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ran- 
som for many. 

29 And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude fol- 

30 lowed him. And, behold, two blind men, sitting by the way- 



tiles there are different grades of 
authority, the inferior officers ruling 
over the people, and at the same 
time subject to the authority of 
those higher than themselves. 

26. "But it shall not be so 
among you] Not so shall it be 
among you. With the Gentiles are 
different grades of official power 
and authority. Not so shall it be 
among you. But whosoever may 
wish to be great among you, let him 
be your servant; and, verse 27, who- 
soever may wish to be first among 
you, let him be your slave;" i. e. 
the greater the distinction sought, 
so much the humbler let the office 
and the service be. The only test 
of greatness with Christ is the hu- 
mility and fidelity which are ready 
to engage in the lowest offices, and 
without any thought of self to do 
what can be done for the good of 
others. This is the foundation of 
Christian duty and distinction. It 
is the great doctrine expressed in 
the first of the beatitudes, implied 
in almost every conversation of our 
Saviour, repeated again and again 
(x. 38, 39 ; xvi. 24-27), directly 
enforced (xviii. 4), illustrated by the 
parable at the beginning of this 
chapter, and confirmed by his own 
example at the last supper (John 
xiii. 4-16), and by his death. 
" Then it was, " says Dr. Furness, 
" that Jesus, perceiving their am- 
bition, gives them, — gives them ! — 
gives the world ! — that immortal 
definition of true greatness, the 
depth of whose meaning is yet to 
be fathomed, and of which his life 
is the only adequate illustration 
which the world has yet seen." 
"Of this whole passage in which 
Jesus defines greatness, I think it 



may be said, without exaggeration, 
that, if it were the only saying of 
his that had come down to us, and, 
even if it had been unaccompanied 
by the splendid illustration of his 
personal example, it would have 
been recorded among the deathless 
sayings of the world's best wisdom. 
Truly he was a world-teacher, and 
the world's wisest may sit at his 
feet, finding all their wisdom antici- 
pated." 28. a ransom 
for many] " As the synoptical 
Gospels (with the exception of 
Mate. xxvi. 28) do not contain any 
other similar declaration in Christ's 
own words, impartiality requires 
from us the confession, that this 
passage taken by itself cannot prove 
the doctrine of Christ's vicarious 
death, especially as the same ex- 
pressions here used to describe it 
may denote any kind of death in 
way of sacrifice." Olshausen. 

29. And as they departed 
from Jericho] 30. And, 

behold, two blind men] Mat- 
thew mentions two blind men, Mark 
and Luke only one, probably the 
one who made himself prominent: 
" Bartimgeus, a blind man, the son 
of Timaeus " (Mark x. 46). So 
Matthew (viii. 28) speaks of two 
demoniacs; Mark (v. 2), and Luke 
(viii. 27) mention but one : probably 
the one who was most remarkable, 
and with whom the extraordinary 
conversation took place. In chap- 
ter xxi. 5-7, Matthew mentions 
both the ass and the colt ; Mark 
only the colt on which our Lord 
rode. Matthew, the tax-gatherer, 
is usually more minute and precise 
in regard to numbers. Where the 
other Evangelists speak of 4,000 or 
5,000, Matthew adds to those num- 



860 



MATTHEW XX. 



side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, 
Have mercy on us, O Lard, thou Son of David ! And the 31 
multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace. 
But they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, 
thou Son of David ! And Jesus stood still, and called them, 32 
and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you ? They say 33 
unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had 34 
compassion on them, and touched their eyes ; and immediately 
their eyes received sight ; and they followed him. ' / /V/- V 



bers, " besides women and children." 
See Matt. xiv. 21 compared with 
Mark vi. 44, Luke ix. 14, and John 
vi. 10 ; and Matt. xv. 38 compared 
with Mark viii. 9. But Matthew 
and Mark speak of meeting the 
blind men [man] as they were going 
out from Jericho, Luke as they were 
drawing nigh to Jericho. Attempts 
have been made to reconcile the 
two accounts, by rendering Luke's 
expression, iv to> iyyifciv avrbv 
els 'Iepi^o), " when he was draAving 
nigh [Jerusalem] at Jericho," or 
" while he was nigh to Jericho" [in 
going out]. Both these interpreta- 
tions are forced. The explanation 
given by Bengel is less unreasona- 
ble. He supposes that one of the 
blind men, Bartimseus, met Jesus 
on his way into Jericho, and that 
while Jesus was dining, or rather 
passing the night, with Zaccheus, 
this man joined himself with an- 
other blind man, and both sitting by 
the side of the way through which 
Jesus must pass, made their appeal 
to him and were healed by him, as 
he was leaving Jericho. It may 
have been so ; but even then there 
is a discrepancy which is not re- 
moved ; since Luke says that one 
was healed when Jesus was ap- 



proaching Jericho, and Matthew 
says that both were healed when 
he was leaving Jericho. It is better 
to allow that in an unimportant 
particular either one or two of the 
Evangelists has made a mistake. 
It is such a mistake as detracts 
nothing from the authority of the 
writer, or the trustworthiness of the 
narrative. These positive contra- 
dictions in the different Evangelists, 
when thoroughly examined, are 
found to be very few, and relate to 
insignificant matters. If we knew 
all the details as they occurred, it 
is possible that even here the ap- 
parent discrepancy might be ex- 
plained. We know the sympathy 
that often exists between persons 
suffering from the same infirmity. 
It is possible that the blind man 
whom Luke represents Jesus as 
healing on his approach to Jericho, 
may have gone in quest of two 
others whom he had known, and 
induced them to sit by the wayside 
where they could call on Jesus as 
he was leaving the city the next 
morning. There is nothing im- 
possible or very improbable in 
such a supposition. But we think 
any explanation of very little con- 
sequence. 









MATTHEW XXI. 361 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Eeckonixg of Time. 

X There are few difficulties in this chapter except in the 
chronological succession of events. Matthew is evidently 
more careful to give the incidents and conversations than 
to arrange them in their exact order. Indeed he hurries 
through the transactions of the first four days, including 
that on which he left Jericho, that he may give in full the 
remarkable words uttered by Jesus on the last day that 
he spent in the temple. 

Six days before the Passover (John xii. 1) Jesus came 
to Bethany. As the legal day of the Jews extended from 
sunset to sunset, the arrival of Jesus at Bethany was 
probably a little after sunset on Friday, i. e. just at the 
beginning of the last day of the week, which was the Jewish 
Sabbath. Carpenter, Harmony of the Gospels, p. 196, 
and Greswell, Diss. Vol. III. p. 19, suppose the triumphal 
entry into Jerusalem to have been on Monday. The 
common opinion they say, " rests on no better authority 
than that of prescription." TVe think that the probabilities 
are not on their side. "We know that the crucifixion took 
place on Friday, and that the Passover was eaten by Jesus 
and his disciples the evening before, which was the begin- 
ning of Friday according to the Jewish mode of reckoning. 

Jesus arrived at Bethany (John xii. 1) six days before 
the Passover. The Paschal lamb was to be killed the 
afternoon before it was eaten. " The festival of unleavened 
bread began strictly with the Passover-meal." But it 
was customary for the Jews " to cease from labor at or 
before midday ; to put away all leaven out of their houses 
before noon." Hence, in popular usage, the day before the 
31 






362 MATTHEW XXI. 

Paschal supper came very naturally to be reckoned as 
the beginning or first day of the festival, which, including 
this day, continued eight days. See Robinson's Greek Har- 
mony of the Gospels, pp. 211, 213. Thus the feast or festi- 
val of the Passover, or the feast of unleavened bread, which 
in its larger compass reached through more than a week, 
may have been accounted to begin either with the day 
when the lamb was killed, or the day following. In 
strictness of speech, the festival began with the Paschal 
supper. But Matthew (xxvi. 17) speaks of the day before 
that as " the first day of unleavened bread," and Josephus 
(Wars of the Jews, V. 3. 1 and Ant. XI. 4. 8) speaks of 
it in the same way. Now " the feast of unleavened bread " 
and " the feast of the Passover " were used as synonymous 
terms to denote the same festival, and that festival may 
have been regarded as beginning on either of the above- 
mentioned days. Too little is known of the usage of 
language in this respect by the Evangelists to enable us to 
determine with certainty which of the two days is meant 
by them as the day from which to reckon when mention 
is made of the Passover (or feast of the Passover) by John 
(xii. 1) and by Matthew (xxvi. 2), and of "the Passover 
and the unleavened bread" by Mark (xiv. 1). If their 
language is to be taken in its strictest sense, Jesus arrived 
at Bethany on Sunday, and " two days before the Pass- 
over" would be on Wednesday. If they followed what 
Dr. Robinson calls the "popular usage," and reckoned 
back from what Matthew calls " the first day of unleavened 
bread," then each of those events falls a day earlier. 
Carpenter and Robinson take the later date ; Alford, in 
accordance with the traditions of the Roman Catholic and 
Episcopal church, assumes the earlier ; and in this par- 
ticular we accord with him, though, as it appears to us, 
there is no weight of reason or authority which decidedly 
preponderates either way. 

Finding Jesus at Bethany on the eve of the Jewish 



MATTHEW XXI. 363 

Sabbath, that is, on Friday evening, we suppose that he 
remained there through the Sabbath, and partook of the 
supper which had been prepared for him, and at which 
Mary anointed his feet with the pure and costly ointment. 
(Matt. xxvi. 6-13; Mark xiv. 3-9; John xii. 1-8.) 
The next day, which corresponds to our Sunday, he entered 
Jerusalem. (Mark xi. 1-10.) Such a procession, with 
its incidents and delays, must have taken up the greater 
part of the day. Mark says that when he had gone into 
the temple and looked round on everything there, it was 
now evening, and he returned to Bethany with the twelve. 
The next morning. Monday (Mark xi. 12-15), he came 
back to Jerusalem, destroying the barren fig-tree as he 
came, expelled the money-changers &e. in the temple, 
and in the evening went out of the city. "And as they 
passed by in the morning" (of course, the next morning, 
or Tuesday), seeing the withered fig-tree as they came, 
they entered Jerusalem again, and, after a day crowded 
with conversations and events, Jesus (Mark xiii. 1, 3) went 
from the temple to the Mount of Olives, where he uttered 
the remarkable warnings and predictions which are re- 
corded in the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of 
Matthew, and the corresponding chapters in Mark and 
Luke. After this conversation, which must have extended 
far into the evening (the beginning of "Wednesday, or the 
fourth day of the week), it was now (Matt. xxvi. 2: Mark 
xiv. 1) "two days" to "the feast of the Passover, and 
of unleavened bread." 

If this view is correct, we have no record of the manner 
in which Wednesday was spent by Jesus. Probably he 
was in the comparative retirement of Bethany or the Mount 
of Olives, gaining strength for the severer triads and s titter- 
ings before him. 






364 MATTHEW XXI. 1-17. 



1-17. Tkiumphal Entry into Jerusalem. 

1-17. We are here brought within the last week of the 
Saviour's life. Heretofore his usual practice has been 
to avoid all publicity. But now, knowing that his hour 
is at hand, he is evidently willing to make a more general 
and public impression. He has probably spent the Sabbath 
with Mary and Martha and Lazarus whom he loved at 
Bethany, which lies secluded at the foot of the Mount of 
Olives on the eastern side, and about fifteen furlongs (John 
xi. 18), or a little less than two miles from Jerusalem. 
While he was there, many of the Jews (John xii. 9, 11) 
came out from the city, not only to see Jesus, but also 
to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. These 
men, many of them doubtless strangers who had come up 
to celebrate the great national festival, were probably very 
much excited by what they heard and saw at Bethany, 
and on their return to Jerusalem heightened the already 
impatient expectations of others, and prepared to welcome 
Jesus on his approach to the city the following day. Jesus 
on Sunday morning left the house of his friends, and on 
reaching that part of the Mount of Olives where Bethphage 
and Bethany meet, he paused and sent forward two of 
his disciples to procure an ass and her foal from the opposite 
village. There is no evidence that any arrangement had 
previously been made with the owner, nor is there anything 
to show decisively that such an arrangement had not been 
made. In either case it is most likely that the owner was 
one of the friends of Jesus, who knew the disciples, and 
therefore understood the reply which Jesus, 3, directed 
them to make to him. The ass, and the foal whereon 
never man sat, were brought, garments were placed upon 
them, and Jesus sat upon them, i. e. on the garments. 
These preparations must have caused a very considerable 
delay, during which the multitudes were gathering round 
him, rousing one another to a still higher pitch of enthu- 



MATTHEW XXI. 1-17. 365 

siasm, while some had spread their garments before him, 
others were cutting branches from trees and spreading 
them in the way. At the descent of the Mount of Olives 
(Luke xix. 37 -40), -the whole multitude of the disciples 
broke forth into acclamations of joy and praise. Some of 
the Pharisees who were present asked him to rebuke his 
disciples for using such language. But he replied, that 
if these were silent, the very stones would cry out, — by 
this hyperbolical expression intimating the sympathy which 
even inanimate things have with the highest spiritual and 
moral forces of the universe. Then, as he reached that 
point on the southwestern slope of the Mount of Olives, 
where the city with all the magnificence of its towers and 
palaces and temple glittering in the noonday sun broke 
upon his sight, his thoughts were turned on scenes and 
events wholly different from those which met the eyes 
and filled the wondering minds of his followers. Unmind- 
ful of the shouts of gladness and triumph which filled the 
air, he thought of the long catalogue of crimes, and the 
approaching day of doom, when her enemies should com- 
pass her about and keep her in on every side, and her 
walls and her children alike should be overthrown and 
destroyed. Beholding the city, "the mother and altar 
of saints," he wept over it, saying, "If thou, even thou, 
hadst only known, even yet in this thy day, the things 
which belong to thy peace ! but now they are hid from 
thy eyes." The long succession of sins and crimes had 
blinded them, and destroyed in them the sense of their 
true condition, and prevented a knowledge of the sorrows 
which must inevitably fall upon them. 

10, 15-17. The whole city was moved at his coming, 
and as he entered within the courts of the temple the 
children took up the words of ancient prophecy which had 
announced his approach, and sent up their welcoming 
cries of Hosanna to the son of David. Jesus refused to 
rebuke them at the request of the Chief Priests and 
31* 



166 



MATTHEW XXI. 



Scribes. Having thus finished his triumphal entry, and 
looked round on everything in the temple (Mark xi. 11), 
it being now eventide he went out unto Bethany with the 
twelve. 

19-22. The withering of the fig-tree from its very roots 
is given much more fully and exactly in Mark xi. 12- 14, 
20-26. Matthew mentions the different parts of the trans- 
action as if they had all occurred at the same time. 



NOTES. 



And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to 
Bethphage, unto the Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two dis- 
ciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, 
and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her ; 
loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say aught 
unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them ; and 
straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might 
be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, " Tell 



1. Bethphage] the house of figs, 
as Bethany is the house of dates. 
Its pi-ecise geographical position 
has not heretofore been ascertained; 
but Barclay ( City of the Great King, 
p. 65) thinks, for reasons which seem 
to us satisfactory, that he has iden- 
tified the spot on the southern spur 
of the Mount of Olives, just before 
reaching the point from which Jeru- 
salem is visible. Mark says, "When 
they were drawing nigh to Jeru- 
salem, at Bethphage and Bethany 
by the Mount of Olives," i. e. at 
the dividing line between Bethphage 
and Bethany. 2. Go into 

the village] There may have 
been some previous understanding 
between Jesus and the owner of the 
animals ; but there is no word here 
to intimate such an arrangement. 
A miraculous knowledge on the 
part of Jesus seems to be implied 
by the language of the Evangelists. 
3. ye shall say, The 



Lord hath need of them] " If 

now the disciples should at first be 
almost suspected of the intention to 
steal the animals, a single word is 
to satisfy the owner. It is by all 
means implied in this, that these 
people belonged to the number of 
those who believed on him, that 
they at once understood who ' the 
Lord' was, and without hesitation 
willingly served him. ..... The 

need of' the Lord who has not even 
an ass of his own for his festal pro- 
cession, presents a significant con- 
trast which the preachers on the 
advent from the earliest times do 
not fail to notice." Stier. 
4. All this was done, that it 
might be fulfilled] This is Mat- 
thew's most common method of in- 
troducing passages from the Proph- 
ets. (See i. 22; ii. 15; iv. 14; xxi. 
4; xxvii. 35.) See also, with a 
slight variation in the introductory 
word, ottcos for tra, ii. 23; viii. 17; 



MATTHEW XXI. 



367 



ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, 
meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." 



xii. 17; xiii. 35. In xxvi. 56 we 
read, " All this was done that the 
Scriptures (or writings) of the 
prophets might be fulfilled." The 
expression, tJiat, in order Uiat, is used 
not so much to indicate a purpose 
as a fact. Sometimes it is employed 
merely to introduce a passage from 
the sacred writings by way of ac- 
commodation, perhaps to remove a 
Jewish prejudice. " Out of Egypt 
have I called my Son" (ii. 15); 
"He shall be called a Nazarene" 
(ii. 23), are examples of this sort. 
The coincidence is verbal and inci- 
dental, and forms no part of the 
original meaning or purpose of the 
writer. In order that it might beful- 
f lied {see Notes, pp. 43, 44) does not 
then involve the necessity of certain 
specific acts in order to the fulfil- 
ment of certain prophecies. It may 
be used merely to point to an un- 
designed and apparently incidental 
coincidence, and never necessarily 
implies that the act was done with 
the express intention of fulfilling 
the letter of the ancient writing. 
But there is a deeper sense in which 
the -word fulfil is applied in the New 
Testament to every part of the Jew- 
ish dispensation, to its law, its his- 
tory, and its prophecies. They all 
pointed on to the more perfect dis- 
pensation for which they were pre- 
paring the way, and in which they 
were to find their fulfilment. The 
law was to be fulfilled, v. 17 (see 
Notes above, pp. 88-92, 94), not 
by the literal observance of all its 
precepts, but in the purer life and 
spirit by which it should be eman- 
cipated from its now burdensome 
forms and ritual observances. So 
the prophecies, foreshadowing, by 
such types and images as could be 
used the richer life and diviner 
glories which should belong to the 
Messiah's kingdom, are fulfilled, not 
so much by the precise reproduc- 
tion of each one of those types and 
images in the outward acts and 
events of his life, as by the unfold- 
ing of its spirit and power and truth 
through him. The fifty-third chap- 



ter of Isaiah, e. g. foreshadowing 
the humiliation and sufferings and 
death of the Messiah, has its ful- 
filment in Christ, even though some 
of the terms used should not liter- 
ally describe any specific action or 
event connected with him, or his 
kingdom. Still, in a few cases, our 
attention is called to the fulfilment 
of prophecy, not only in this higher 
sense, but in minute and apparently 
unimportant particulars. Isa. liii. 
7, 9, 12 : "is a sheep before her 
shearers is dumb, so he opened not 
his mouth. And he made his grave 

with the rich in his death. 

And he was numbered with the 
transgressors." The passage before 
us is of this kind. The prophet 
Zechariah, in his anticipations of 
the Messiah's kingdom and the 
blessings which should attend it, 
breaks out, ix. 9, into language 
which, taken figuratively, would 
describe the character and office of 
Christ. "I suppose," says Dr. 
Noyes, "the mild, pacific disposi- 
tion of the Messiah, rather than his 
humility, to be particularly denoted 
by the adjective, and by the cir- 
cumstance of his riding upon an 
ass. It seems to have been appro- 
priate to princes and magistrates to 
ride upon asses, especially white 
asses (see Judges v. 10 ; x.*4 ; xii. 
14); but it was a sign of peace to 
ride upon an ass rather than a war- 
horse." But while the prophetic 
language here used has its fulfilment 
in the mild and pacific character as 
well as the kingly office of the Mes- 
siah, it is also literally fulfilled to a 
remarkable degree in its minute and 
apparently unimportant particulars. 
The very images which were em- 
ployed to foreshadow his character 
and office are actually reproduced 
before the eyes of men, though, as 
St. John says (xii. 16), even the 
disciples did not understand or 
call to mind the prophetic words 
till after " Jesus was glorified." 
The language in its connection 
with the events is very extraor- 
dinary : — 



368 



MATTHEW XXI. 



And the disciples went, arid did as Jesus commanded them, 6 
and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their 7 
clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude 8 
spread their garments in the way ; others cut down branches 
from the trees, and strewed them in the way. And the multi- 9 
tudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Ho- 
sanna to the Son of David ! blessed is he that cometh in the 

name of the Lord ! Hosanna in the highest ! And when 10 

he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, 
"Who is this ? And the multitude said, This is Jesus, the 11 
prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the 12 
temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in 



*' Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, 

Shout, daughter of Jerusalem ! 

Behold thy King cometh to thee ! 

He is just, and having salvation ; 
. Meek, and riding upon an ass, 

Even upon a colt, the foal of an ass." 

Were these particulars, thus cir- 
cumstantially fulfilled, merely inci- 
dental coincidences, or were they 
foreseen and foretold as events 
which should actually and literally 
take place ? We incline to the opin- 
ion that they were thus foreseen 
and foretold. But if this view is the 
correct one, here and in a few other 
cases we must remember that such 
a minute and literal specification of 
apparently unimportant facts which 
are to be, forms no essential part of 
the prophet's work. It belongs 
rather to the art of the conjuror 
than to the inspiration of the proph- 
et to insist on such verbal coinci- 
dences. 8. spread their 
garments in the way] a token 
of extraordinary respect. An in- 
stance is mentioned by Dr. Kobin- 
son, in his Biblical Eesearches, II. p. 
162. At a time when the inhabit- 
ants of Bethlehem were in deep dis- 
tress on account of some oppressive 
act of the government in 1834 or 
1835, " Mr. Farran, then English 
Consul at Damascus, was on a visit 
to Jerusalem, and had rode out with 
Mr. Nicolayson to Solomon's Pools. 
On their return, as they rose the 
ascent to enter Bethlehem, hundreds 
of the people, male and female, met 
them, imploring the consul to inter- 



fere in their behalf, and afford them 
his protection ; and, all at once, by a 
sort of simultaneous movement, they 
spread their garments in the way 
before the horses. The consul was 
affected unto tears ; but had of 
course no power to interfere." The 
time is to be observed in the Greek. 
The very great multitude spread 
(aorist) their garments in the way, 
and others were cutting (imperfect) 
branches from the trees, and strew- 
ing them in the way. 9. 
Hosanna to the Son of David] 
Save now, salvation to the Son of 
David, — a term which seems to 
have been given to the Messiah. 
The rest of the sentence is from Ps. 
cxviii. 26. 12. went into 
the temple] not the temple proper, 
but within the sacred enclosure, 
where the mercenary spirit was 
cherished while furnishing doves 
for sacrifice, or exchanging at a 
profit the money with which the 
people might make their purchases 
for sacrifice. This took place in 
the outer court, or court of the 
Gentiles. " By the authoritative 
act of cleansing this part of the 
temple, our Lord not only testified 
his zeal for God's house, agreeably 
to the construction put on it by 
the disciples (John ii. 17), but his 
zeal for the Gentiles also: it being 
a way of teaching by action that 
the Gospel was open to them as well 
as the Jews." Archbishop New- 
come. " Our blessed Saviour, who 
came to redeem, not the Jews only, 



MATTHEW XXI. 



369 



the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers 

13 and the seats of them that sold doves ; and said unto them, 
It is written, " My house shall be called the house of prayer ; 

14 but ye have made it a den of thieves." And the blind and the 

15 lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. And 
when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things 
that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, 
Hosanna to the Son of David ! they were sore displeased, and 

16 said unto him, Hearest thou what these say ? And Jesus 
saith unto them, Yea ; have ye never read, " Out of the 
mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise " ? 

17 And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany, and 
he lodged there. 

18 Now in the morning, as he returned into the city, he hun- 

19 gered. And when he saw a fig-tree in the way, he came to it, 
and found nothing thereon, but leaves only ; and said unto it, 
Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And pres- 



but the Gentiles also, and to make 
them a principal part of his fold, 
would not suffer them to be thus 
neglected ; but in this act of his 
gave them a prceludium of liis fur- 
ther favor intended towards them; 
and he that was to vindicate their 
souls from death, and take away 
the partition wall between them and 
the Jews, first vindicates their ora- 
tor?/ from profanation." Mede. Ac- 
cording to Mark, this cleansing of 
the temple did not take place till 
the day after the triumphant entry. 
A similar cleansing of the sacred 
enclosure occurred near the com- 
mencement, as this was near the 
close, of our Saviour's ministry. 
(Johnii. 13 -17.) 13. Two 

passages from the pi'ophets are here 
brought together. " My house shall 
be called a house of prayer for all 
people," or, as in Mark xi. 17, " for 
all nations." (Isa. lvi. 7.) "Is this 
house, which is called by my name, 
become a den of robbers in your 
eyes?" (Jer. vii. 11.) " 19. 

And when he saw a fig-tree] 
Jesus had come from Bethany 
early in the morning, and apparent- 
ly without having taken any food. 
Being hungry, and seeing a single 



fig-tree, i. e. a fig-tree either stand- 
ing by itself or distinguished from 
others by its leaves, while they were 
still bare, he went to it and found 
nothing on it but leaves. Mark says 
that it was not yet time for figs, but 
Jesus, seeing from a distance this 
tree covered with leaves, may have 
supposed from the fact of its having 
leaves, that as one of the early kinds 
it might have fruit, since the fruit 
of the fig-tree is formed before the 
leaves come out. A great deal of 
learning has been spent on this pas- 
sage with little profit. Early figs 
are now ripe at Jerusalem in May. 
Barclay's City of the Great King. 
Iiet no fruit grow 
on thee henceforward forever] 
" And yet this forever has its mer- 
ciful limitation, when we come to 
transfer the curse from the tree to 
that of which the tree was as a 
living parable; a limitation which 
the word itself favors and allows. 

None shall eat fruit of that 

tree till the end of the present ceon, 
not until these times of the Gentiles 
are fulfilled." Trench. The wither- 
ing of the fig-tree from its very roots 
is described much more fully and 
exactly in Mark xi. 12 - 14, 20 - 26. 



370 



MATTHEW XXI. 



ently the fig-tree withered away. And when the disciples saw 20 
it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig-tree withered 
away ! Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say 21 
unto you, if ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do 
this which is done to the fig-tree, but also if ye shall say unto 
this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the 



I 



Matthew mentions the different 
parts of the transaction, and the 
words connected with it, without 
any reference to time, as if all had 
happened at once. Mark mentions 
the visit to the fig-tree and the words 
of Jesus, " Let no one eat fruit of 
thee hereafter," as occurring on the 
morning (Monday) of the second 
visit to Jerusalem, while it was not 
till the morning of the third day, or 
Tuesday, that the disciples saw 
how it" had withered away, and 
Jesus added his remarks on the 
power of faith. This shows how 
careful we must be about assigning 
to one specific date facts which are 
found related together without any 
notice of a change of time. The 
important words and events (all that 
can be essential for our instruction) 
are sometimes brought together 
under a single head, as if they had 
all occurred at once, when they may 
in fact have been separated from 
each other by considerable intervals 
of time. This withering of the fig- 
tree stands apart from all the rest 
of our Saviour's miracles, as a work 
of destruction. There is no mark 
of impatience or anger, such as 
some critics think they find indi- 
cated by it. Amid the impressive 
and solemn imagery which Jesus in 
those last days is throwing around 
the subject by his terrible words of 
warning, this blasted tree stands 
forth a perpetual type and symbol 
of the curse of death which rests 
on all unfruitful lives, whether of 
nations or of men. Especially did 
it then apply to the Jews, whose po- 
litical history was drawing rapidly 
to a close. On passing the spot the 
next day (Mark xi. 20), the disciples 
being greatly impressed by what 
they saw, Jesus took occasion from 
it to repeat (see xviii. 19) what he 



had before taught respecting the 
power of faith and prayer. In Mark 
xi. 21, Peter says, " Master, behold 
the fig-tree which thou didst curse 
has withered away." We shrink 
from applying the word curse to any 
expression used by o\ir Saviour. It 
has an air of harshness and almost 
of profaneness in our language 
which it has not in the Greek. In 
order to understand its meaning 
here, we have only to bear in mind 
the words which called out Peter's 
remark, " Let no man eat fruit from 
thee hereafter forever ; " or, as in 
Matthew, " Let there be no fruit * 
from thee forever." Neither of 
these expressions implies disap- 
pointment, vexation, or anger. It 
is only the calm and terrible sen- 
tence of death pronounced upon the 
unfruitful tree, as a symbol of the 
more terrible ruin which must fall 
on man's unfruitfulness. It was 
also, as the words following show, a 
pi-oof of his power to strengthen 
the faith of the disciples. " In 
view of the dangers that surround- 
ed them," says Davidson, Intr. to 
New Testament, I. p. 102, " this 
impressive act was fitted to call 
forth their highest faith in his 
ability to save from every foe, 
whether human or spiritual." 

21. if ye shall say unto this 
mountain, Be thou removed] 
" The Jews used to set out those 
teachers among them that were 
more eminent for the profoundness 
of their learning, or the splendor of 
their virtues, by such expressions 
as this, ' He is a rooter up (or a re- 
mover) of mountains.' The same 
expression with which they sillily 
and flatteringly extolled the learn- 
ing and virtue of their men, Christ 
deservedly useth to set forth the 
power of faith." Lightfoot. 




MATTHEW XXI. 

22 sea ; it shall be done. And all things whatsoeve 
in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. 

23 And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and 
the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, 
and said, By what authority doest thou these things ? and who 

24 gave thee this authority ? And Jesus answered and said unto 
them, I also will ask you one thing ; which, if ye tell me, I in 
like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. 

25 The baptism of John, Avhence was it ? from Heaven, or of men ? 
And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, 
From Heaven ; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then be-> 

26 lieve him ? But if we shall say, Of men ; we fear the people ; 

27 for all hold John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus, and 
said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell 1 

28 you by what authority I do these things. But what think 

ye ? A certain man had two sons ; and he came to the first, 

29 and said, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. He answered 
and said, I will not ; but afterward he repented, and went. 

30 And he came to the second and said likewise. And he an^ 
3i swered and said, I go, sir ; and went not. Whether of them 



22. And all things whatsoever 
ye shall ask in prayer, believ- 
ing, ye shall receive] " As re- 
spects the idea that believing prayer 
will be heard, St. John (xiv. 13; kv. 
16; xvi. 24) has given it in its com- 
plete form, by adding the clause in 
my name (Comp. on Matt, xviii. 19); 
for in that clause the pute origin of 
such prayer is traced to the mind 
and spirit of Jesus, and in this very 
origin of the supplication there lies 
the necessity of* its fulfilment." 
Olshausen. " Faith in God would 
place them [the disciples] in rela- 
tion with the same power which he 
wielded, so that they might do 
mightier things even than this." 
Trench. 23-27. And 

"""when he was come into the 
temple] Jesus had now, Tuesday 
morning, entered the sacred en- 
closures' of the temple (not the 
temple itself), probably for the Tast 
time. The chief priests and elders 
have come with artfully prepared 
questions to entrap him. " It was," 
says Alford, " an official message, 



sent with a view to make our 
Saviour declare himself to be a 
prophet sent from God, — in which 
case the Sanhedrim had power to 
take cognizance of his proceedings, 
as of a professed teacher." The 
question which he puts to them by 
way of reply confounds and baffles 
them in their attempt, and opens 
the way for the condemnation 
which he by the two ensuing para- 
bles leads them (31-41) indirectly 
to pronounce upon themselves. 

28 - 32. But what think ye ?] 
Here you are making your profes- 
sions bf fidelity to God ; but how 
does it seem to you? A certain 
man had two sons, &c. Which, of 
the two did the will of his father? 
They say unto him, The first. Even 
so, is the reply ; the very publicans 
and harlots, who were at first dis- 
obedient to God, but afterwards be- 
lieved in John and repented at his 
preaching, shall enter the king- 
dom of God sooner than you, who 
with all your professions neither 
believed in him at first, nor after- 



372 MATTHEW XXI. 

twain did the will of his father ? They say unto him, The 
first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the 
publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before 
you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, 32 
and ye believed him not ; but the publicans and the harlots 
believed him ; and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not after- 
ward, that ye might believe him. Hear another parable : 33 

There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, 
and hedged it round about, and digged a wine-press in it, and 
built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a 
far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he 34 
sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive 
the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and 35 
beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he 36 
sent other servants, more than the first ; and they did unto 
them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, say- 37 
ing, They will reverence my son. But when the husband- 38 
men saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the 
heir ; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. 
And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and 39 
slew him. When the lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, 40 



wards repented that you might be- door near the ground, and a level 

lieve, when you had seen him in space on the top, where a man could 

the way of righteousness. sit and command a view of the plan- 

33. a Vineyard] " The vinestock tation." Hackett. According to 

often appeal's on the Macabsean Professor Hackett, these towers are 

coins as the emblem of Palestine, sometimes forty or fifty feet high, 

sometimes, too, the bunch of grapes and so built as to serve for houses, 

and the vine-leaf." " The image 38. come, let us kill 

of the kingdom of God as a vine- him] In the original we have here 

stock, or as a vineyard, runs through the very words that are used in the 

the whole Old Testament. (Deut. Septuagint (Gen. xxxvii. 20) by 

xxxii. 32; Ps. lxxx. 8-16 ; Isa. v 1 the brothers • of Joseph. As then 

-7; xxvii. 1-7; Jer. ii. 21 ; Ezek. against Joseph, so now against 

xv. l-6;xix. 10.)" Trench. We can- Jesus, counsel had already been 

not lay much stress on such referen- taken (John xi. 53) to destroy him. 

ces. a tower] i. e. a watch- 40. When the lord, 

tower. These towers " first caught therefore] " We may observe that 

my attention as I was approaching our Lord here makes WJien the lord 

Bethlehem from the 'southeast, of the vineyard cometh coincide with 

They appeared in almost every field the destruction of Jerusalem, which 

within sight from that direction; is unquestionably the overthrow of 

they were circular in shape, fifteen the wicked husbandmen. This pas- 

or twenty feet high, and, being built sage forms, therefore, an important 

of stone, looked, at a distance, like key to our Lord's prophecies, and a 

a little forest of obelisks decisive justification for those who, 

Those which I examined had a small like myself, firmly hold that the com- 



MATTHEW XXI. 



373 



41 what will he do unto those husbandmen ? They say unto him, 
He will miserably destroy those wicked men ; and will let out 
his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him 

42 the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye 
never read in the Scriptures, " The stone which the builders 
rejected, the same is become the head of the corner ; this is 

43 the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes " ? There- 
fore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from 



ing of the Lord is, in many cases, to 
be identified primarily with that 
overthrow." Alford. * The Lord of 
the vineyard here is not the Son, but 
He who sent the Son. The minute 
adjuncts of a parable are not to be 
insisted upon in any interpretation 
Ave may put upon it. 41. 

They say unto him] The lan- 
guage here put into the mouth of 
those standing by is represented by 
Mark and Luke as spoken by Jesus. 
Luke (xx. 16) adds, that"" when 
they heard it, they said, God for- 
bid." De Costa in The Four Wit- 
nesses, pp. 32, 33, Edinburg Edition, 
says, '• Who sees not that, in order 
to explain the difference between 
St. Mark, and still more between 
St. Luke and St. Matthew, we must 
look in the two former for the man- 
ner in which the thing actually hap- 
pened; while from a higher* point 
of view St. Matthew's narrative ex- 
presses that inward conviction felt 
by the enemies of Jesus and of his 
truth, which compels them involun- 
tarily, in their own consciences, to 
justify the sentence he pronounces 
against them? " We have no right 
to infer any such purpose, or such 
insight into the secret thoughts of 
men, on the part of St. Matthew. 
We rather infer, from a comparison 
of the different narratives, that Mat- 
thew, with his characteristic exact- 
ness, here relates things as they 
actually took place, — that Mai'k 
and Luke give the sentiment of this 
verse, which was actually spoken 
by others, as coming from Jesus, 
since, in drawing it from others in 
the manner he did, he in fact adopt- 
ed and confirmed it as his own. 
And though the bystanders may 
32 



have uttered the speech here at- 
tributed to them, they also, at the 
thought of th# terrible example 
which was to be made of the un- 
faithful, as taught by Jesus from 
their own lips, may have added the 
words, fifj yevoiro, " may it not 
be," or, k> heaven avert the neces- 
sity of such an infliction." The 
whole has been represented in a 
parable. They assent to the dread- 
ful conclusion ; but since it is all 
represented under the conditions as- 
sumed in the parable, they couple 
their assent with the hope or prayer 
that a state of things requiring such 
punishment may never be. It is 
not improbable" that, after their 
reply in Matthew, Jesus, in words 
not recorded by either of the Evan- 
gelists, made the application of their 
sentence more directly to the Jew- 
ish nation, and that the deprecating 
words, Not so, or God foi^bid, were 
then called from them. 
43. Therefore I say unto you] 
Therefore refers to the whole previ- 
ous parable, and not to the quotation 
alone. Jesus, according to Luke 
xx. 9, directed this parable of the 
wicked husbandmen rather to the 
people than to the priests and 
scribes. The parable itself is too 
plain to need any explanation, being 
spoken directlyagainst the Jewish 
people, and having its fulfilment in 
the destruction of Jerusalem. In 
its form there is perhaps a reference 
to Isa. v. 1-7. which' would make 
it more impressive to the Jewish 
mind. The great law of retribution, 
however, which is illustrated by it, 
and applied to the Jewish nation, is 
so set forth as to be a warning to 
all those who live unfaithful to their 



374 



MATTHEW XXI. 



you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 
And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken ; but on u 



religious privileges. For a moment, 
at verse 42, Jesus leaves the wicked 
husbandmen, who have slain the 
son and heir, and carries out the 
subject of his rejection by a figure 
of speech, which under the sanction 
of what the Jews regarded as a 
prophecy of the Messiah, Ps. cxviii. 
22, 23, shows forth not only his re- 
jection, but his subsequent promo- 
tion to the highest place, — the 
chief corner-stone. (See note to 
verse 44.) And whosoever falleth 
on this stone, to him it shall be a 
rock of stumbling and offence on 
which he shall be bruised and 
broken ; but he on whom in his per- 
verse and obstinate disobedience 
this stone shall fall, it shall grind 
him to powder. By the stone is 
meant Christ himself, the imper- 
sonation of his religion and his 
kingdom, which shall be a stum- 
bling-block on which some shall 
fall to their hurt, and which shall 
fall on others with its grinding retri- 
butions. If we do not build upon 
it in faith, either we shall fall upon 
it in unbelief, or it will fall on us in 
judgment. " For this reason" Jesus 
adds, 43, referring back to the para- 
ble, i. e. because this religion with 
its righteous retributions bruises 
those who stumble upon it, and falls 
with crushing, grinding power on 
those who set themselves against it; 
therefore the kingdom of God shall 
be taken away from you, and given 
to a people, i. e. the true followers 
of Christ, who bring forth its fitting 
fruits. 44. And whoso- 

ever shall, fall ] This verse is 
omitted by Teschendorf, who thinks 
it has been interpolated from Luke 
xx. 18. Griesbach and Alford re- 
tain it. Its proper place is between 
the 42d and 43d verses. Verses 42 
and 44 have been thought to refer, 
not only to Ps. cxviii. 22, 23, but to 
Isa. viii. 14, xxviii. 16, and especi- 
ally to Daniel ii. 44, 45. The pas- 
sage from the Psalms is the only 
one distinctly cited in this place. 
It is also cited in Acts iv. 11. The 
words used in the triumphal entry, 



9, " Blessed is he who cometh in the 
name of the Lord," are from the 
same psalm. " Some of the ancient 
Jews," says Dr. Noyes, " perhaps 
those who lived in the time of 
Christ, regarded the psalm as pro- 
phetic of the Messiah ; and some 
supposed that Christ and the Apos- 
tles regarded it as such. But the 
most common opinion of interpreters 
is, that those verses are quoted only 
by way of accommodation, or rhe- 
torical illustration, or, at least, are 
applied to Jesus in a mystical, not 
a literal sense." In opposition to 
such interpreters, Stier says, " He 
who will acknowledge in the Old 
Testament no foreseeing sense of 
the Spirit transcending the human 
consciousness of the prophets, mov- 
ing above the typical histories and 
relations in independent miraculous- 
power, finds the just recompense 

of this false inspiration-theory 

(especially in such passages as that 
now before us), in a most unworthy 
degradation of the words of Christ 
and his apostles to a mere play 
upon Old Testament phrases in mo- 
ments of most exalted and holy 
earnestness." A favorable speci- 
men of the mystical interpretation 
which prevailed particularly among 
the early fathers is to be found in 
Cyprian's Treatise on the Lord's 
Prayer, and is applied to this quo- 
tation in verse 42 : " We ought to 
renew our prayers again at the 
setting of the sun, and the close of 
the day. For because Christ is the 
true sun, and the true day, when at 
the departure of the sun and day 
we pray that the light may at length 
come again, we pray for the com- 
ing of Christ who shall afford the 
grace of eternal light. But that 
Christ is called the day, the Holy 
Spirit declares in the Psalms." 
The stone, it says, which the build- 
ers rejected is become the head of 
the corner. By the Lord this was 
made, and is marvellous in our eyes. 
This [or he] is the day which the 
Lord hath made; let us walk and 
rejoice therein." This may serve 



MATTEJEW XXI. 375 

45 whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And 

when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, 

46 they perceived that he spake of them. But when they sought 
to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude ; because they 
took him for a prophet. 

as poetry to embellish a thought, ing, or as a truthful explanation 

or as rhetoric to commend an ex- of the passage above quoted from 

hortation, but it can hardly be Psalm cxviii. 
soberly accepted as sound reason- 






376 MATTHEW XXII. 1-14. 

CHAPTER XXII. 
1-14. The Wedding Feast. 

1-14. A similar parable to this of the Wedding 
Feast is given in Luke xiv. 16-24, and has been thought 
by many critics to be the same. But the two are unlike 
in so many particulars that they may be considered as 
separate parables. 

The parable here speaks of the calling of the Jews, 
their neglect, 3, they would not come, their contemptuous 
indifference, 5, they made light of it, and finally their in- 
sults and murderous cruelty, for which the king sent his 
armies and destroyed their city; — foretelling the coming 
of the Roman armies, instruments in the hands of God, 
whose eagles may possibly be alluded to in xxiv. 28, and by 
whom the great city of the Jews should be burned up. 
Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans within a little less 
than forty years from the time of the prediction. From 
9 to 13 mention is made of the Gospel invitation, which, 
since the Jews refuse it (Acts xiii. 46), goes to all, bad and 
good, with its offers of mercy, and would gather all in to 
the marriage feast. But it must be remembered, that 
though all, even the wicked, are called, yet there are con- 
ditions to be fulfilled, and that, without the wedding garment, 
" the internal adornment of the soul " in righteousness, 
the very guests at the table will be cast out from the 
lighted festal-room into the outer darkness of the night, 
where in shame and grief there shall be wailing and gnash- 
ing of teeth. 

We would call attention here to the quiet manner in 
which the prophecy rises from the loss of national privi- 
leges, and an earthly retribution to the fulfilment of that 






MATTHEW XXII. 15-22. 377 

same law of retribution in the judgments of another 
world. Intervals of time vanish away. The boundaries 
between this life and that which is to be are disregarded. 
The spiritual insight of our Lord, following the great 
laws of God's kingdom on to their results, whether in 
the conduct of individuals or nations, fixes itself on national 
ruin here, and exclusion from the society of the redeemed 
hereafter, as the condition of the unfaithful, without any 
broad line of distinction to separate them from each other, 
as if they belonged to two different orders of events. 
The sharp distinctions between this world and another, 
or this life and another, which enter into all our thoughts, 
do not seem to have had the same place in his mind. 
He looked through both alike, and saw in both alike the 
operation of the same divine principles and laws. His 
kingdom, having its seat in the soul of every follower 
here, receives and cherishes within itself all faithful souls, 
whether on earth or in heaven. So as his thought reaches 
alike through seen and unseen worlds, facts which in their 
outward surroundings seem to us to belong to entirely 
distinct orders of events, are in his mind and language 
intimately connected together, as brought about by the same 
laws. The shadows of time which imprison us within this 
material world, and make us look on all that lies beyond 
as of a character entirely different, never with him separate 
causes from their effects, or deeds done in the body from 
their legitimate results, whether in this world or that which 
shall succeed. 



15-22. Paying Tribute to CLesar. 

15-22. The Pharisees, foiled in their previous attempt 
(xxi. 23) to entrap Jesus, hold a consultation, and in their 
extreme craftiness lay a snare for him which they believe 
it will be impossible for him to escape. The leading men 
keep in the background. But they have arranged their 
32* 






378 MATTHEW XXII. 15-22. 

measures with the Herodians, who, though usually their 
enemies, are now brought to act together with them by 
their common hatred against Jesus. The Pharisees did 
not believe in paying tribute to the Romans ; the Herodians 
were the creatures of a dynasty established and sustained 
by the Roman government. The disciples of the Phari- 
sees, and the Herodians, "spies" Luke calls them, were 
to come as if engaged in a dispute on this subject, and to 
refer the question to him as to one of such impartiality, 
truthfulness, and wisdom, that they are willing to abide by 
his decision. "Is it right," they ask, "to pay tribute to 
Caesar or not ? " If he should answer, No, then the Hero- 
dians are ready to charge him with rebellion against the 
Roman government, and his destruction is sure. If he 
should say, Yes, then the Pharisees will make use of his 
reply to turn the popular prejudices of the Jews against him, 
and destroy his authority with them. But he saw through 
their artful disguise, and, with words which laid open their 
hypocrisy, asked them to bring him the tribute money. 
Pointing out to them the image and superscription of Caesar, 
he said, " Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, 
and unto God the things which are God's." He is not satis- 
fied with simply baffling them in their inquiries, and sending 
them away confounded and silenced, but in his reply he 
lays down a broad and most important principle of conduct. 
Give to the government the money and the allegiance which 
are. due to it, but let it be done in accordance with the 
higher allegiance and the more unqualified obligations 
by which you are bound to him in whose image you have 
been created. By uniting the two, he shows that the lesser 
obligation is to be limited and explained by the greater. 

They who put the question had supposed that he must 
join himself either to one side or the other. But, as has 
been finely said, "the very peculiarity, the very proof of 
the divinity of his doctrine, was that they could not square 
it with any of their existing systems. It was with his 



MATTHEW XXII. 23-31. 379 

doctrine, as it was in the legendary tale which describes 
how the tree of the wood of the True Cross had been of 
old rejected, because it would not fit into the building of 
the ancient temple. It was too long for one corner, it was 

too short for another And so it was laid aside till 

it came forth at last to be the means and symbol of the 
world's redemption." "The true Creed of the Church, 
the true Gospel of Christ, is to be found, not in proportion 
as it coincides with the watchwords or the dilemmas of 
modern controversy, but rather in proportion as it rises 
above them and cuts across them. How often are we 
told that we must be either Pharisees or Herodians ; that 

we must follow everything to its logical extreme 

But there is a ' right division of the word of truth,' — there 
is a middle way of religion, which, not from weakness, not 
from indolence, not from halting between two opinions, 
but from sincere love of Christ, and from desire to conform 
ourselves to his image, we may humbly desire to walk." — 
Stanley's Canterbury Sermons, pp. 112, 113. 

23 - 33. The Resurrection from the Dead. 

23 — 31. The Pharisees, amazed and wondering, left Jesus. 
They believed in the resurrection of the dead. But the 
Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, " neither 
angel nor spirit" (Acts xxiii. 8), came with a question 
which they believed would be wholly unanswerable. A 
woman who has had seven husbands, — "in the resurrec- 
tion, whose wife shall she be ? " We may imagine the 
cunning, sharp, triumphant look with which these closing 
words were uttered. Jesus did not argue with them after 
their own fashion, but in one of the most instructive pas- 
sages in the New Testament, in the calmness and depth 
of his spiritual insight, he pointed out to them how utterly 
they had been mistaken, not knowing either the Scriptures 
or the power of God. From that day to this a class of 



380 MATTHEW XXII. 23 - 33. 

keen, but shallow and conceited men, sometimes nominally 
as friends and sometimes as enemies of our religion, have 
founded their objections to Christian doctrines or to Chris- 
tianity itself on this double mistake, attributing to the 
Scriptures what the Scriptures do not teach, and shutting 
up the power of the Almighty within the limits of their 
narrow, short-sighted conceptions. In no particular perhaps 
has this been more remarkable than with the two classes 
represented by the Pharisees and Sadducees ; — the latter 
denying altogether the immortality of the soul, and the 
former believing, as Martha did (John xi. 24), in the resus- 
citation of the body at a general resurrection in the last 
day. The reply of Jesus, while directed against the Saddu- 
cees, is so framed as to meet both these classes. Though 
the great laws of spiritual life prevail in all worlds alike, it 
will not do, he says in substance, to carry into the world 
to come the limitations and connections which here grow 
out of our sensuous and material organization. " The sons 
of this world are given in marriage," but in the resurrection, 
"when (Mark xii. 25) they rise from the dead," "they 
(Luke xx. 35, 36) who shall be accounted worthy to 
obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, 
neither marry nor are given in marriage ; neither can they 
die any more; for they are as angels, and are children 
of God, being children of the resurrection." The sublime 
view which is here opened to us of that world, and the 
spiritual relations which alone prevail there, ought to banish 
forever from our minds all thought of the resurrection 
of the present body, with its outward, material organization. 
31-33. But lest the doctrine of the resurrection should 
still be misunderstood, Jesus quotes from the sacred writ- 
ings which Pharisees and Sadducees alike reverence, a 
passage (Ex. iii. 6) which not only implies the fact of 
a resurrection of the dead, such as the Sadducees denied, 
but which also proves, in opposition to the belief of the 
Pharisees, that the dead are already risen. As touching 



MATTHEW XXII. 34-40. 381 

the resurrection of the dead" (Matthew), " concerning the 
dead that they are raised" (Mark), "that the dead are 
raised, even Moses showed at the bush " (Luke). For as 
the Lord is not the God of the dead, but of the living, so 
when he called himself the God of Abraham and Isaac and 
Jacob, he declared by this form of speech that they were 
then risen from the dead, " for all (Luke xx. 38) live unto 
him." It is worthy of remark, that when Martha said 
(John xi. 24), "I know that he shall rise again in the 
resurrection at the last day," Jesus immediately corrected 
this view of a distant resurrection by announcing the true 
doctrine of a spiritual, uninterrupted, eternal life. " I am 
the resurrection and the life." "And whosoever liveth 
and believeth in me shall never die." 

34-40. The Two Great Commandments. 

34-40. The lawyer who put the question, Which is the 
great commandment in the law? may have supposed that 
Jesus would propose some precept of his own as more 
important than any commandment in the law, and thus 
lay himself open to the condemnation of the Jews. But 
in reply to their captious questioning, he brings out from 
the law itself (Deut. vi. 5 ; Levit. xix. 18) two precepts, 
which contain within themselves the substance of all our 
duties to God and man, — of all that has been taught by the 
law and the prophets. 

Thus the enemies of Jesus could not question him in 
their craftiness and malice, without being astonished and 
overwhelmed by some principle of Divine truth. He did 
not answer them according to their folly, but took advantage 
of the occasions which they made to expound our relation 
to human governments and to God, to unfold the true 
doctrine of the eternal life, and to set vividly before us 
the sum and substance of our duties to God and man. 



382 MATTHEW XXII. 41-45. 

41-45. Christ the Son of David. 

41 — 45. There are those who believe that Jesus here 
intended nothing more than to silence and confound his 
enemies. "Alike from the terms of the conversation and 
from its context," says Dr. Palfrey in his Relation between 
Judaism and Christianity, p. 108, " I infer that the object 
of Jesus was not to prove or disprove anything, but simply 
to perplex the Pharisees, and show to the bystanders 
what incompetent teachers they were, and what shallow 
and unskilful interpreters of the Old Testament Scriptures." 
Hase says, " He (Jesus) proved to them his dialectical 
embarrassment by proposing a sophistical question on the 
Messianic signification of Psalm ex." But as Jesus, in 
reply to the captious questions which his enemies have 
put to him, has taken occasion to unfold or announce to 
them great and important principles of political duty and of 
moral and religious life, and to silence them, not by so- 
phistical reasonings after their own fashion, but by the pro- 
found and majestic truths which he uttered, is it probable 
that now, when they are all silenced, he of his own accord 
would propose a question respecting a passage in their 
sacred writings with no higher purpose than to perplex 
them and show off their incompetency as religious teachers ? 
Unless the language pretty decisively indicates this design 
on his part, we should be slow to believe it. It is not 
countenanced by his conduct on any other occasion. 

What then is the true interpretation of this passage? 
Jesus has already been announced publicly as the Messiah, 
and the last day of his public ministry has now come. 
But all the Jews, his friends hardly less than his enemies, 
view the Messiah as an earthly king, exercising a wider 
and holier sway than any king who had gone before, but 
still an earthly dominion. Jesus would prepare the way 
for the overthrow of these erroneous ideas. But they 
will not receive plain instructions, or a direct contradiction 



MATTHEW XXII. 41-45. 383 

of prejudices so deeply rooted in their minds. He can 
reach them only through their Jewish habits of thought. 
He therefore asks them, " What think ye of the Christ," 
i. e. the Messiah or the Anointed One ? " " Whose son is 
he ? " They say unto him, " The son of David." " How 
then," he asks, " doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying 
(Ps. ex. 1), Jehovah said unto my Lord?" &c. "If David 
then call him Lord, how is he his son?" These ques- 
tions are put by Jesus in regard to the interpretation of 
a psalm which all around him regarded as a prediction 
'of the Messiah, and they are put in such a way as to show 
that the construction which they put upon these words 
is wholly inconsistent with the fact certainly established 
by their prophetic writings that the Messiah was to be 
of the seed of David. As no one among the learned 
Pharisees and lawyers could explain the contradiction, 
would not his friends at least, and might not some even of 
his enemies, be led to reconsider the whole matter, and 
to admit different and higher views of the Messiah and 
his kingdom, when the spiritual claims and authority of 
Jesus should be more distinctly presented ? " There is 
certainly," they would say to themselves, and perhaps among 
themselves, "a difficulty here. These two views of ours 
cannot be harmonized with one another. If the Messiah 
is really, and on this point there can be no question, the 
son of David, and David nevertheless looks up to him 
with reverence and calls him Lord, may it not be that he 
and his kingdom are of a more exalted and divine charac- 
ter than we have supposed ? And these wonderful works 
which are attributed to Jesus, his resurrection from the 
dead, his ascension into heaven, and the everlasting king- 
dom which he professed to establish, — the kingdom of 
God or the kingdom of Heaven, — may it not be that these 
after all are the true fulfilment of the ancient prophecies ? " 
Those who were disposed to follow Jesus, and some of the 
more thoughtful even among his enemies might be led into 



384 MATTHEW XXII. 

reflections of this kind. A doubt lodged in the mind by a 
pertinent and suggestive question will often do more in the 
end to remove a deeply rooted prejudice and to revolution- 
ize all one's habits of thought than any specific instructions 
or reasonings on the subject. A doubt thus introduced into 
the mind is like the water which is sometimes poured 
into the clefts of a granite ledge, and which freezing there 
rends the whole mass asunder, when direct and violent 
efforts to split it would be wholly unavailing. 

These views of the passage agree substantially with 
those of Campbell, Kuinoel, -and Norton. 



NOTES. 



And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, 
and said, The kingdom of Heaven is like unto a certain king, 
which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants 
to call them that were bidden to the wedding ; and they would 
not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell 
them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner ; 
my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready ; 
come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went 
their ways ; one to his farm, another to his merchandise. And 
the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, 
and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth ; 



1. answered] "Not only he a rebuke in the expression itself to 

who has been questioned, but he those who would shroud his relig- 

also to whom a reason for speaking ion in gloom ! 3, to call 

has been given, may rightly be said them that were bidden ] It 

to answer." 2. a mar- seems to have been customary in 

riage] Any great celebration or the East (Esther v. 8; vi. 14) to send 

festival was so called. The acces- a second time to call those who had 

sion of a prince to his throne was already been invited to a feast. In 

called the marriage of a king with this case, as there might have been 

his people. " Blessed are they who some mistake in the matter, the 

are called unto the marriage supper king sends, 4, the third time a still 

of the Lamb." (Rev. xix. 9.) How more pressing call. 7. But 

often does Jesus set forth this festive when the king heard thereof, 

character of his religion, and what he was wroth] " Among the 



MATTHEW XXII. 



385 



and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, 

8 and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The 
wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. 

9 Go ye therefore into the highways ; and as many as ye shall 
10 find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the 

highways, and gathered together all, as many as they found, 

both bad and good ; and the wedding was furnished with guests. 

n And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a 

12 man which had not on a wedding garment ; and he saith unto 
him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding 

13 garment ? And he was speechless. Then said the king to 



Mohammedans, refusal to come to 
a marriage feast, -when invited, is 
considered a breach of the law 
of God. Hedaya, Vol. IV. p. 91. 
It was probably considered in this 
light among all the Oriental na- 
tions." Ad. Clarke. 9. 
and as many as ye shall find] 
Pococke says, " that an Arab prince 
will often dine before his door, and 
call to all that pass, even to beggars, 
in the name of God, and they come 
and sit down to table, and when 
they have done retire -with the usual 
form of returning thanks. It is al- 
waj s customary among the Ori- 
entals to provide more meats and 
drinks than are necessary for the 
feast, and then the poor who pass 
by, or whom the rumor of the 
feast brings to the neighborhood, 
are called in to consume what re- 
mains. This they often do in an 
outer room to which the dishes are 
removed from the apartment in 
which the invited guests have feast- 
ed ; or, otherwise, every invited 
guest, when he has done, with- 
draws from table, when his place is 
taken by another person of inferior 
rank, and so on, till the poorest 
come and consume the whole." J. 
Cobbin. 10. bad and 
good] are alike invited and brought 
in (xiii. 47), with the expectation, 
however, that all will become fitted 
for the companionship of those who 
are there. 11. a wedding 
garment] It is disputed among 
the critics whether the master of 
the feast usually had such garments 
33 



distributed among the guests, to be 
worn as a badge or token of their 
right to a place at the festival. There 
is no sufficient evidence in the Old 
Testament of such a custom. The 
passages quoted by Stier (Gen. xlv. 
22; Jud. xiv. 12; 2 Kings v. 22) are 
not to the point. It seems, how- 
ever, to be implied in the passage 
before us, and the custom, we be- 
lieve, still exists in the East. " We 
may and ought, when he calls, to 
come just as we are ; but we may 
not, if we would see his face and 
enjoy his last feast, remain as we 
are." 1 " As the king clothes his 
guests, the bridegroom his bride, so 
does God himself clothe us with 
the robe of righteousness and gar- 
ment of salvation," if we only will 
receive it with humble and faithful 
hearts. The Avedding garment is 
spoken of in Rev. xix. 7, 8 : •' For 
the marriage of the Lamb is come, 
and his wife hath made herself 
ready. And to her was granted that 
she should be arrayed in fine linen, 
clean and white; for the fine linen 
is the righteousness of the saints." 
12. Friend] 'Eralpe, 
comrade. A word of ambiguous 
meaning, which may be addressed 
to an intimate friend, and also to 
those with whom we are not on 
terms of intimacy. And 

he was speechless] He had no 
word of explanation or excuse to 
give for having put himself among 
the wedding guests without the wed- 
ding garment, — for having come 
without the fitting preparation. 



386 



MATTHEW XXII. 



the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, 
and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping 
and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are 14 
chosen. 

Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might is 
entangle him in his talk. And they sent out unto him their dis- 16 
ciples, with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou 
art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest 
thou for any man ; for thou regardest not the person of men. 
Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? is it lawful to give n 
tribute unto Caesar, or not ? But Jesus perceived their wick- is 
edness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites ? Shew 
me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. 19 



All, bad and good, were invited ; 
but some preparation of heart was 
needed, before they could properly 
accept the call. 13. bind 

him hand and foot] These mi- 
nor particulars in the parable are 
not of course to be literally inter- 
preted and applied. As the guest 
who had here numbered himself 
among the chosen ones had not the 
qualities which would fit him for a 
place at the marriage feast of the 
Lamb, he could find no freedom or 
pleasure or fellowship there, but by 
the very condition of his heart, and 
the affinities of his nature, helpless 
and dumb, like one speechless and 
bound hand and foot, he is shut out 
from their society, and left in the 
outer darkness and sorrow in which 
his soul must dwell. outer 

darkness] Those who left the 
lighted hall of the marriage feast, 
were sent out into the outer dai-k- 
ness of the night, — a figure of 
speech to describe the darkness of a 
soul shut out from the light and 
warmth of God's truth and love. 
14. For many are called, 
but few are chosen] (See Note 
xx. 16.) Though all are invited, 
yet few so accept the call, and use 
the means of salvation, as to be 
numbered among the chosen ones. 
These words apply to the whole 
parable, and not merely to its clos- 
ing sentence. The idea is the same 
as in Matthew vii. 14, and refers to 



the difficulties which lie in the way 
of those who would follow Christ. 
16. with the Herodians] 
Little is known of the Herodians. 
They were a political rather than a 
religious sect. They were attached 
to the party of Herod, and of course 
supporters of the Roman govern- 
. ment. Their usual position was 
one of hostility to the Pharisees. 
But wherever they are mentioned 
in the Gospels (Mark iii. 6; xii. 13), 
they are acting with the Pharisees 
against Jesus. Some little light, 
but not much, is thrown upon their 
history by Josephus, Antiq. XVII. 
3. Their flattering address here 
savors of political cunning, and is 
in keeping with their position as 

courtiers How terrible to 

such men the reply of Jesus, seeing 
as he did through their wicked de- 
sign. 19. the tribute 
money] a Roman coin, denarius. 
There was also another coin (xvii. 
24-27) which would seem to have 
been used for temple money. Some 
have supposed that the 'reply of 
Jesus related merely to these two 
kinds of coins, one of which was to 
be paid to Ca?sar, and the other to 
God. But his reply goes deeper 
than this, even if it does not tacitly 
refer to man as bearing in his image 
and superscription the same relation 
to God which the penny bears to Cae- 
sar. The tribute money, — " it has 
been often described; it may still be 



MATTHEW XXII. 



387 



20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and super- 

21 scription ? They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto 
them, Render therefore unto Cresar the things which are 

22 Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. When 
thev had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and 
went their way. 

23 The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that 

24 there is no resurrection, and asked him, saying, Master, 
Moses said, " If a man die, having no children, his brother 

25 shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother." Xow 
there were with us seven brethren ; and the first, when he had 
married a wife, deceased ; and, having no issue, left his wife 

26 unto his brother. Likewise the second also, and the third, 

27 unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. 

28 Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the 

29 seven ? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto 
them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power 

30 of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are 
given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. 

31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read 

32 that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, " I am the 
God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Ja- 
cob"? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 

33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at 
his doctrine. 

34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sad- 

35 ducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of 
them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting 

36 him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment 
3" in the law ? Jesus said unto him, " Thou shalt love the Lord 

thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 



seen, — the little silver coin, bear- 
ing on its surface the head encircled 
with a -wreath of laurel and bound 
round with the saci-ed fillet, — tbe 
well-known features, the most beau- 
tiful and the most wickerl, even in 
outward expression, of all the Ro- 
man Emperors — with the super- 
scription running round, in the 
stately language of Imperial Rome, 
'Tiberius Ccesar, divi Augusti fiUus 
Augustus, Iniperator,'' Tiberius Caesar 



Augustus, son of the divine Augus- 
tus. Emperor."' Stanley. 30. are 
as the angels of God in heaven] 
as angels of God in heaven, not as 
the angels. They are not like the 
angels, but are themselves as angels 
in heaven. 32. is not the 

God of the dead, hut of the 
living] God is God, not of dead 
but of living persons : — without the 
article, and more emphatically de- 
noting the present and continuous 



388 



MATTHEW XXII. 



all thy mind." This is the first and great commandment. 39 
And the second is like unto it ) " Thou shalt love thy neighbor 39 
as thyself." On these two commandments hang all the law and 40 
the prophets. 

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked 41 
them, saying, What think ye of Christ ? whose son is he ? 42 
They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, 43 
How then doth David in spirit call him Lord ? saying, " The 44 



life of those whose God he is. 

40. on these two command- 
ments hang all the law and 
the prophets] " Christ appears 
to us to point by the metaphorical 
expression to the symbolical tassels 
worn by the Pharisees on their gar- 
ments, and enjoined by Moses, as a 
memorial of the commandments : 
two as the two tables, in each many 
threads, but bound together in one 
blue string, i. e. ' many command- 
ments of one indivisible heavenly 
law of love.' " Stier. The simpler 
interpretation, " On these two prin- 
ciples depend all the rest," seems 
to us the more natural and correct. 
43. in spiritj "Vates, pro- 
pheta," i.e. Seer, prophet. Kuinoel. 
" Speaking by inspiration." Camp- 
bell. " Under a Divine impulse." 
Norton. " In spiritual contempla- 
tion." Palfrey. The expression 
" in spirit " does not necessarily 
imply a special Divine influence, — 
" shall worship the Father in spirit 
and in truth" (John iv. 23), "in 
the spirit, and not in the letter" 
(Rom. ii. 29). " Walk in the spirit, 
and ve shall not fulfil the lust of 
the flesh " (Gal. v. 16). But when 
it is used to express the impelling 
cause, it does, Ave think, imply be- 
ing moved by the Spirit of God, — 
divinely moved or inspired, — or, as 
Mi\ Norton explains it, "under a 
Divine influence." " And he came 
in the spirit into the temple." (Luke 
ii. 27.) "And he was led in the 
spirit into the wilderness." (Luke 
iv. 1.) " As it is now revealed unto 
his holy apostles and prophets in 
the spirit." (Eph. iii. 5.) "I was 
in the spirit on the Lord's day." 
(Rev. i. 10.) Unless the phrase in 
spirit is here used to express a state 



of peculiar spiritual exaltation or 
sensibility to spiritual influences, 
the spiritual faculties peculiarly 
open to spiritual impressions, or pe- 
culiarly moved by the spirit of God, 
it is difficult to assign to it any 
meaning adapted to the place which 
it holds. * This, we think, must have 
been the meaning intended by the 
writers. So in the passage before 
us, " David in sjnrit" or, as Mark 
has it (xii. 36), "David in the holy 
spirit" there is implied a state of 
mind more or less produced and 
guided by the special influences of 
the Divine Spirit. There can hard- 
ly be a question that Jesus was 
and meant to be, so understood at 
the time. It may be said that he 
was only accommodating himself 
to the views of others in order to 
confute them. But we cannot think 
that this would be quite in accord- 
ance with the perfect sincerity and 
truthfulness of his character. He 
plainly assumes, first, That David 
is speaking here of the Messiah ; 
and, secondly, That he does this 
under a divine impulse, in the spirit. 
But because David was thus, in 
the spiritual exaltation of his fac- 
ulties, enabled to foretell the king- 
dom of the Messiah, and its ultimate 
triumph, it does not follow that he 
had a perfectly clear and adequate 
conception of the Saviour's charac- 
ter and office. Divine illumination 
does not imply perfect infallibility. 
The prophet may not always un- 
derstand entirely the vision that 
comes, before him. Daniel (xii. 8, 
9) says, " I heard, but I understood 
not," and when he asked for an 
explanation, the reply was, " the 
words are closed up and sealed till 
the time of the end." We should 



MATTHEW XXII. 



389 



Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I 
45 make thine enemies thy footstool." If David then call him 



always bear this in mind in our 
attempts to explain the prophetical 
writings of the Old Testament. 
Visions of a future and holier king- 
dom than the world had known, — 
foregleams of one greater than any 
monarch or conqueror, who should 
put down all his enemies, and rule 
the nations in righteousness, were 
granted to prophets and holy men of 
old who spake as they were moved 
by the spirit of God. But they 
were obliged to employ such terms 
as were used among men ; and the 
whole prophetic vision, as it stood 
revealed in the words of the prophet, 
must be marked by the imperfec- 
tions necessarily inherent in our 
limited human conceptions, habits 
of thought, and forms of speech. 
As a single illustration of our mean-! 
ing, we subjoin the whole of Psalm 
ex. as it stands in Dr. Noyes's 
version : — 

1. Jehovah said to my lord, 

" Sit thou at my right hand, 

Until I make thy foes thy footstool." 

2. Jehovah will extend the sceptre of thy 

power from Zion ; 
Thou shalt rule in the midst of thine 
enemies. 

3. Thy people shall be ready, when thou 

musterest thy forces, in holy splen- 
dor [in the beauty of holiness] ; 
Thy youth shall come forth like dew 
from the womb of the morning. 

4. Jehovah hath sworn, and he will not 

repent : 
" Thou art a priest forever. 
After the order of Melchisedek ! " 

5. The Lord is at thy right hand, 

He shall crush kings in the day of his 
wrath. 

6. He shall execute justice among the 

nations ; 

He shall fill them with dead bodies ; 

He shall crush the heads of his ene- 
mies over many lands. 

7. He shall drink of the brook in the 

way ; 
Therefore shall he lift up his head. 

We will suppose this psalm to be, 
as our Saviour himself assumes in 
speaking of it, composed by David. 
Could the opening words be applied 
by him to any one of his succes- 
sors? The question of Jesus still 
33* 



comes in with all its original force: 
" If David call him Lord, how is he 
his son ? Must there not then be a 
different and higher sense in which 
the language is used than in its ap- 
plication to a king of Israel? Be- 
sides, what Jewish monarch was 
there who united in the manner 
here indicated, 4, the priestly with 
the kingly character and office ? 
There is no suitable correspondence 
between the words and the subject. 
But if, on the other hand, David in 
spirit had a glimpse of the higher 
and holier kingdom of the Messiah 
with its attendant conflicts and vic- 
tories and glories, are not the images 
here such as a warlike king like 
David might fittingly employ to 
body forth the essential facts of the 
case? — 1. The exalted condition 
of the Messiah whom the prophet 
king looks up to as his Lord; 2. 
The sceptre of his power going 
forth from Zion, the seat of the Jew- 
ish religion, gaining its ascendency 
even in the midst of his enemies ; 
3. His people in the beauty of holi- 
ness, and his followers coming forth 
in the freshness of their youthful 
zeal like dew from the womb of the 
morning; 4. His joining the priestly 
to the kingly office; Jehovah, 5,6, 
putting down and destroying his 
enemies when kings and rulers rise 
against him, and executing justice 
among the nations, while he, 7, like 
one in a desert land suddenly re- 
freshed by a running brook, lifts up 
his head in joy and triumph. Is 
there not here under these various 
images, 1 - 4, a picture of the Mes- 
siah in his exaltation and holiness, 
while the warlike images that fol- 
low show how amid violent oppo- 
sition and bloody conflicts, where 
kings and people are overwhelmed 
and destroyed, his kingdom shall 
be established," and he, notwith- 
standing these wearisome wars, 
shall, like one refreshed by a 
stream in the sultry day, lift up his 
victorious head. The cruelties spo- 
ken of in the psalm are objected 
to. " The least," says Dr. Palfrey, 



390 



MATTHEW XXII. 



Lord, how is lie his son ? And no man was able to answer 46 
him a word ; neither durst any man, from that day forth, ask 
him any more questions. 



" that such a supernatural inspira- 
tion, had David possessed it, might 
have been expected to do, would be 
to keep him from describing the fu- 
ture Messiah, the meek and peace- 
ful Jesus of Nazareth, as a fui'ious 
soldier who should ' strike through 
kings,' and pile up heaps of bloody 
and helpless corpses, and slay till 
he should be exhausted with weari- 
ness and thirst." But is not this a 
caricature ? The images in the 
psalm, of war and cruelty and 
desolation, do they not truthfully 
describe the condition of things 
through which the religion of Jesus, 
" extending the sceptre of its power 
from Zion," passed in its victorious 
progress? And do they not accord 
with the Avars and rumors of Avars, 
nation rising against nation, and 
kingdom against kingdom, which 
Jesus himself has spoken of as 
among the signs of his coming ? 
We wish to state the matter pre- 
cisely. Here is a psalm which the 
Jews received as written by David, 
and as referring to the Messiah. 
Jesus in quoting from it, speaks of 
David as saying these things in 
spirit, and with reference to the 
Messiah. The presumption from 
all this is that Jesus believed in 
David as the author of the psalm, 
and that the psalm Avas, or at least 
contained, a prediction of the Mes- 
siah and his kingdom. The psalm 
itself, in the first four verses, is 
altogether in harmony with this 



view of its Messianic character, 
and can hardly be explained natu- 
rally and intelligibly, on any other 
supposition. Is there in the last 
three verses anything inconsistent 
Avith this AdeAv ? We leave it for 
the careful reader to judge whether 
the latter clause is not also per- 
fectly in accordance with the dark 
and destructive conflicts which 
marked the early progress of Chris- 
tianity, and Avhether its language 
may not without any violence be 
interpreted as a highly impassioned 
and condensed figurative descrip- 
tion of the struggles and slaughters 
and conquests by which God in his 
providence was* preparing for the 
establishment of the Messiah's king- 
dom. 44. till I make 
thine enemies thy footstool] 
We Avould refer to the striking co- 
incidence betAA-een Ps. ex. 1, and 1 
Cor. xv. 25, to the use made of the 
same verse in Acts ii. 34 ; Heb. i. 
13, and x. 13 : " The eternity of the 
session," says Bengel, "is not de- 
nied; but it is denied that the as- 
sault of the enemies will interfere 
with it. The Avarlike kingdom Avill 
come to an end ; the peaceful king- 
dom, hoAvever, will have no end. 
Compare 1 Cor. xv. 25, &c. Even 
befoi-e that the Son was subordinate 
to the Father, but did not then ap- 
pear so, on account of the glory of 
his kingdom : even after that he 
Avill reign, but as the Son, subordi- 
nate to "the Father." 



MATTHEW xxrn. 391 



J. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Christ's Denunciation of the Pharisees. 



According to Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount was 
the first public discourse of Jesus to the Jews, and this 
the last. There is, in some respects, a remarkable resem- 
blance or contrast between the two. As that opened with 
seven beatitudes, so this closes with seven woes. Verse 14 
is omitted by Tischendorf. The beatitudes offer themselves 
in sounds of perpetual gladness and welcome to those who 
will come ; the woes stand out as sad and awful warnings 
to those who will not hear. It is remarkable that in 
enumerating the crimes which made a national existence 
no longer possible for the Jews, Jesus did not dwell on the 
vices of the people, but on the spiritual wickedness, — the 
vainglory, hypocrisy, and religious insensibility of their 
spiritual teachers and guides. 

3-12. As teachers of the law, holding the place and 
reading the precepts of Moses, the Scribes and Pharisees 
are to be respected; but beyond this, their example and 
their teachings are to be shunned. They, 4, profess much 
and do little, and what they do, 5-7, is in order to be seen 
of men. But do not ye, 8-11, seek these human dis- 
tinctions, — these titles of honor, Rabbi, Teacher, Father. 
By Father is not meant the relation of parent to child, but 
some official title of respect which Jesus would not have his 
followers assume or apply, — as, e. g. the term Pope, Papa, 
Father, in the sense in which it is now assumed by the 
head of the Roman Catholic Church. The expression, 
" for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren," strikes 
directly at the pretended supremacy of any one over 
the other disciples. 






392 MATTHEW XXIII. 

13-34. Some have thought the translation Woe unto you 
too severe, and have substituted for it, Alas for you. But 
the former expression comes more nearly to the meaning 
of the original in its union of severity and pity, and is more 
in accordance with the whole tone of our Saviour's dis- 
course. Woe unto you, 13, because ye shut up the 
kingdom of Heaven, i. e. will not yourselves receive my 
religion, and as religious teachers and guides use your 
authority to prevent others from receiving it. Woe unto 
you, 14, because under the pretence of religious services 
and " duties, ye contrive to appropriate the possessions 
of widows and devour as it were their houses. This verse 
is omitted by Tischendorf. Woe unto you, because without 
the vital religious faith through which alone a true convert 
can be gained, ye compass sea and land to bring one man 
over a proselyte to your hypocritical and wicked purposes. 
" A disciple," says Alford, " of hypocrisy merely, — neither 
a sincere heathen nor a sincere Jew, — doubly the child 
of hell, — condemned by the religion which he had left, — 
condemned again by that which he had taken," — not a 
sincere convert, but an apostate from the old religion, a hyp- 
ocrite in regard to the new. Mr. Norton supposes that this 
may refer to Judas, whom the Pharisees had won over to 
their dark and murderous purposes. Woe unto you, 16 — 
31 (see also v. 33-36), because ye evade and profane the 
most sacred religious obligations by your unfounded and 
bewildering distinctions. Woe unto you, 23, 24, because 
while punctiliously scrupulous about the slightest observ- 
ances — the tithing of unimportant herbs — ye omit the 
weightier matters of the law, viz. righteousness, mercy, 
and love. Allusion is probably made here to Micah vi. 8 : 
" He hath showed thee, O man, what is good ; and what 
doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love 
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ? " Woe unto 
you, 25, 26, because ye regard only the outside of the cup 
and the platter, both in the literal and figurative sense of 



MATTHEW XXIII. 393 

the expression, while within they are full of rapine and 
excess ; yea, woe unto you, 27, because, being thus mindful 
of the outside alone, ye are like whited sepulchres, fair 
without, but within full of dead men's bones and all un- 
cleanness. — Finally, woe unto you, 29-33, because, as 
the last consummate act of hypocrisy and crime, at the 
very time that ye are building and adorning the tombs of 
the prophets, and saying, " if we had lived in the days 
of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with 
them in the blood of the prophets," ye by your very words, 
and by actions which speak more powerfully than words, 
testify to yourselves that ye are the sons of them who 
slew the prophets. Go on then, if you will. Since there 
is no hope of amendment for you, and no room for the 
establishment of my kingdom except on the ruins of yours, 
Fill up speedily the measure of your fathers. Complete 
the work of cruelty and crime which they began, that, in 
the national overthrow and destruction which must ensue, 
the time of redemption to my followers from all your cruel- 
ties and oppressions may come. O ye serpents, ye genera- 
tion of vipers, [no longer, as with John the -Baptist, iii. 7, 
" Who hath warned ye to flee from the wrath to come ? 
but] how can ye escape the damnation [or judgment] of 
hell? Wherefore, or, for this reason, 34, refers to this 
clause as well as to what goes before. It is as if Jesus 
had said, If there were any hope of your amendment and 
co-operation with me, — any hope that you would cease to 
stand in the way of God's kingdom, and to persecute and 
oppress my disciples, I might even yet bear with you. 
But since there is no such hope, and no way in which my 
religion can be established on earth except by the consum- 
mation, on your part, of crimes which must soon end in 
the overthrow of your power and the destruction of your 
city and nation, therefore, as the only way of shortening 
those evil days, and hastening the coming of the Son of 
man, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men 



394: MATTHEW XXIII. 

and scribes, whom ye shall persecute and scourge and 
murder, so that your measure of iniquity may soon be full, 
and on you may come every kind of blood-guiltiness that 
the world has known, — all the righteous blood that has 
been shed from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood 
of the last righteous man, whom ye slew within the very 
precincts of the temple. Verily I say unto you, All these 
things shall come upon this generation. 

The cumulative Guilt of a Nation. 

We have here stated by Jesus, in its terrible results 
the slow but constantly progressive power of sin among 
a people who give themselves up to what is evil. The 
catalogue becomes constantly darker from generation to 
generation. Children grow up into the crimes of their 
parents, and add to them yet other crimes of their own. 
Partial judgments fall upon them from time to time, and 
check somewhat the progress of corruption. Prophets 
and holy men are raised up and sent among them that 
all who will may yet repent and be saved. But these 
messengers of God's mercy only aggravate the guilt of those 
who will not hear. So they, hardened alike by the judg- 
ments and mercies of heaven, add to the murderous spirit 
of their fathers a deeper hypocrisy of their own, and fill up 
whatever has been left wanting in the measure of crime 
by those who went before, till they have reached such 
a point of obduracy and wickedness, that national dissolu- 
tion and death must ensue, and in that crisis, that day of 
national retribution, all the crimes which have been accu- 
mulating through so many ages, unfolding new depths of 
iniquity in each successive generation, as they are now 
consummated in their lives, so also are they fulfilled in the 
judgments which fall upon them. " The mills of the gods 
grind late, but they grind clean." Mercy not less than 
justice requires that their reign of iniquity should be ended. 
When a people, through the slowly accumulating results of 



MATTHEW XXIII. 395 

ages of infidelity and sin, are at length ripe for judgment, 
when the last terrible crisis, so long preparing, has come, 
and neither the warnings nor the promises of God will 
move them to turn from their iniquities and live, then 
mercy and justice alike require that the sorrowful retribu- 
tions which have been gathering through the whole period 
of their history, from their earliest to their latest crime, 
shall fall in ruin on their sinful and devoted heads. The 
Jews were now reaching this period. They had had their 
opportunities. But now to them the end of the world, the 
end of their ceon or dispensation, was at hand. All that 
can be done has been done. One thing only waits, — the 
cross of Christ. But except with the few who will hear, 
that will only deepen their guilt, and hasten the day of 
vengeance. All efforts in their behalf are in vain. It 
only remains to pronounce their sentence, though it be 
with tears and with the yearning of an infinite ten- 
derness towards them. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 
that killest the prophets and stonest them who are sent 
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children 
together, even as a bird gathereth her young under her 
wings, and ye would not ! Behold, your house is left unto 
you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me 
henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in 
the name of the Lord." These were the words of Jesus 
as he went out of the temple for the last time. And when 
he departed its glory also departed, and it was left indeed 
naked and desolate to them. Then was the beginning of 
that desertion which Josephus in his "Wars of the Jews, 
VI. 5. speaks of as among the omens which preceded the 
destruction of the temple. "Moreover," he says, "at that 
feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by 
night into the inner court of the temple, as their custom 
was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said, that 
in the first place they felt a quaking, and heard a great 
noise ; and after that, they heard a sound as of a multitude 
saying, Let us depart hence." 



396 



MATTHEW XXIII. 



NOTES. 

Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, 
saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Q 
All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe 3 
and do ; but do ye not after their works ; for they say, and do 
not. For they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, 4 
and lay them on men's shoulders ; but they themselves will not 
move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they 5 
do for to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries, 
and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the 6 
uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the syna- 
gogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, 7 
Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi ; for one is your 8 



2. sit in Moses' seat] The 

Sanhedrim, which was composed 
mainly of the scribes and Phari- 
sees, was the highest religious au- 
thority recognized among the Jews. 
3. therefore] This 
word limits the command which it 
introduces. Therefore, inasmuch as 
they occupy the seat of Moses, and 
so far as they occupy it, and are 
the expounders of his law, observe 
their directions, but do not imitate 
them in their conduct. 
for they say, and do not] 
There is always this danger with 
those whose business it is to ex- 
pound the duties of moral and re- 
ligious obligation. They are so 
taken up with thinking about them, 
and enforcing them on others, that 
they are in danger of failing to re- 
ceive them into their own hearts, 
and carry them out in their lives. 
There is no soul so impervious to 
the vital and vitalizing powers of 
divine truth as one encased in its 
own religious speculations and stud- 
ies. Its intellectual processes on 
these great themes absorb into 
themselves the life which should 
enter into it and quicken alike its 
sensibilities, its affections, and its 
active powers. 4. For 

they Dind] The allusion here is 
to beasts of burden, which when 



men have loaded with a heavy 
weight, they apply their hand to it 
to keep it steady, and prevent it 
from falling." Kenrick. " In what 
an entirely different light does the 
Saviour appear, who himself sought 
to bear the heaviest burdens, and by 
his love to make everything easy for 
his people." Stein. 5. their 

phylacteries] Strips of parch- 
ment with certain passages of Scrip- 
ture, viz. Exod. xiii. 11-17, and 1 
-11; Deut. xi. 13-22; vi. 4-10, 
written on them, and worn on the 
forehead between the eyes, on the 
left side next the heart, and on the 
left arm. and enlarge the 

borders of their garments] The 
fringes were commanded to be worn 
for a memorial. (Num. xv. 38.) 

6. the uppermost rooms] 
the highest place for reclining at 
the feasts. the chief seats] 

The uppermost seats in the Syna- 
gogue, i. e. those which were near- 
est the Chapel, where the sacred 
books were kept, were esteemed 
peculiarly honorable." Jahn. 
8. Be not ye called Rabbi] 
Rabbi, my Master. The negative 
particle is sometimes used in He- 
brew instead of the comparative 
" For thou desirest not sacrifice, 
else would I give it, and the sacri- 
fices of God are a broken spirit." 



MATTHEW XXIII. 



397 



9 Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. And call no man 
your father upon the earth ; for one is your Father, which is in 

10 heaven. Neither be ye called masters ; for one is your Mas- 

11 ter, even Christ But he that is greatest among you shall be 

12 your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be 
abased ; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. 

13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for 

ye shut up the kingdom of Heaven against men ; for ye neither 
go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go 

14 in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye 
devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer ; 

is therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto 
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye compass sea 
and land to make one proselyte ; and when he is made, ye 
make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. 

16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall 
swear by the temple, it is nothing ; but whosoever shall swear 

17 by the gold of the temple, he is *a debtor. Ye fools, and 
blind ! for whether is greater ? the gold, or the temple that 



(Ps. li. 16, 17.) That is, outward 
sacrifice is less required than a bro- 
ken spirit. So it may be here, that 
Jesus commands his disciples not 
to receive or bestow these titles of 
respect, for they are nothing when 
thus received and accepted, com- 
pared with what they are when ap- 
plied to Christ their only master, 
and to God who alone in the highest 
import of the word is their Father. 
The meaning of the passage is the 
same, whether we adopt this or the 
common interpretation. In either 
case. Jesus forbids his disciples to 
seek or to use among themselves 
those titles of distinction which 
may interfere with their brotherly 
equality, or put any one on earth as 
a master between them and him. 

16-22. Bishop Jebb (Thirty 
Years' Correspondence, Vol. II. pp. 
56, 57) has pointed out in these 
passages a consti-uction which cor- 
responds veiy closely to the paral- 
lelism of Hebrew poetry, and which 
may interest those who are curious 
in some of the lighter matters per- 
taining to the form of our Saviour's 
teachings. The characteristic con- 
34 



struction is less marked in English 
than in Greek, but may be repre- 
sented as follows : — 

Wo" unto you, blind leaders, who say, 
Whosoever shall swear by the temple, 

it is nothing, — 
But he who shall swear by the gold of 

the temple, is bound thereby ; 
Ye fools and blind ones ! 
For which is the greater, the gold, 
Or the temple that sanctifieth the 

gold? 

And woe unto you, blind leaders, who 

say, 
Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it 

is nothing ; 
But he who shall swear by the gift 

that is on it, is bound thereby : 
Ye fools and blind ones ! 
For which is the greater, the gift, 
Or the altar that sanctifieth the gift ? 

Whoso, therefore, shall swear by the 

altar, 
Sweareth by it, and by all things 

thereon ; 
And whoso shall swear by the temple, 
Sweareth by that, and by him who 

dwelleth therein ; 
And he who shall swear by heaven, 
Swears by the throne of God, and by 

him that sitteth thereon. 



398 MATTHEW XXIII. 

sanctifieth the gold ? And, Whosoever shall swear by the 19 
altar, it is nothing ; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is 
upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools, and blind ! for whether is great- 19 
er ? the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift ? Whoso 20 
therefore shall swear by the altar sweareth by it, and by all 
things thereon ; and whoso shall swear by the temple sweareth 21 
by it, and by him that dwelleth therein ; and he that shall swear 22 
by heaven sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sit- 
teth thereon. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 23 
crites ! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cumin ; 
and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, 
mercy, and faith. These ought ye to have done, and not to 
leave the other undone. Ye blind guides ! which strain at a 24 
gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Phar- 25 
isees, hypocrites ! for ye make clean the outside of the cup 
and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and ex- 
cess. Thou blind Pharisee ! cleanse first that which is within 26 
the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are 27 
like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful 
outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all 
uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous 28 
unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 



23. tithe of mint, and anise, 24. which strain at a gnat, 

and cumin] These were unim- and swallow a camel] The 

portant herbs, and the scribes and Jews carefully strained their wine, 

Pharisees are represented as hypo- that they might not drink any 

critically magnifying the impor- unclean insect in it. The camel 

tance of paying their tenths on was also an unclean animal. The 

them, that they might cover up meaning of the comparison is obvi- 

their short-comings in weightier ous. The translation should be who 

matters. Jesus tells them that they strain out a gnat, &c. 
should not omit the least, but above 27. Ye are like unto whited 

all they should observe the weight- sepulchres] " In order that those 

ier matters of the law. " The tithe who were forbidden to appi'oach 

was a provision made by the law of unclean places might not be pol- 

Moses for the support of the Levites, luted, the Jews were accustomed 

the stranger, the fatherless, and the to whitewash the sepulchres." 

widow, Deut. xxvi. 12 ; and was Schleusner. " The Jews used once 

therefore intended to proceed from a year (on the 15th of the month 

the produce of the field, and not Adar) to whitewash the spots where 

from garden herbs. The Pharisees, graves were, that persons might not 

however, were so scrupulously exact be liable to uncleanness by passing 

in observing the injunctions of the over them. (See Num xix. 16.) This 

law, that they tithed all small goes to the root of the mischief at 

herbs." Kenrick. once : your heart is not a temple of 



MATTHEW XXIII. 



399 



29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! because ye 
build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of 

30 the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our 
fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the 

31 blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto 
yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the 

32 prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 

33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers ! how can ye escape the 

34 damnation of hell ? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you 
prophets, and wise men, and scribes ; and some of them ye 
shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in 

35 your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city ; that 
upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the 
earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of 
Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the tem- 

36 pie and the altar. Verily 1 say unto you, all these things shall 
come upon this generation. 

37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and 
stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have 
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her 

38 chickens under her wings ! and ye would not. Behold, your 

39 house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall 



the living God, but a grave of pesti- 
lent corruption." Alford. 

35. Zacharias, son of Bara- 
chias] It is not known Avith cer- 
tainty who is meant here. There is 
a tradition mentioned by Origen 
that Zacharias, the father of John 
the Baptist, was slain by them in the 
temple. It may have been some 
other person of that name whom 
the Jews had recently murdered, or 
it may be that Jesus alluded to 
Zacharias the son of Jehoiada, 
who was killed there (2 Chron. 
xxiv. 21), and of whose blood the 
Jews had a saying, that it was nev- 
er washed away till the temple was 
burnt at the captivity. 
Son of Barachiah] " does not 
occur in Luke xi. 51, and perhaps 
was not uttered by the Lord himself, 
but may have been inserted by mis- 
take, as Zecharias the prophet was 
son of Barachiah, see Zech. i. 1." 
Alford. between the tem- 



ple and the altar] between the 
vaos, temple proper and the altar, 
which was in the com-t, Upov, just 
in front of the temple. The altar 
built by Solomon, was, according to 
Josephus, about 30 feet square and 
15 feet high. According to the 
same writer the altar in the enclos- 
ure of Herod's temple was about 
75 feet (50 cubits) square, and 22^ 
feet high. 39. Ye shall 

not see me henceforth, till] 
Many commentators find here a 
prediction of the future conversion 
and restoration of the Jews. " Un- 
til that day the subject of all proph- 
ecy," says Alford, " when your re- 
pentant people shall turn with true 
and roval hosannas and blessings to 
greet Him whom they have pierced." 
" Christ takes leave' of them," says 
Stier, " not merely with the feeling 
that he can return to the temple 
only, as Messiah or never (accord- 






400 



MATTHEW XXIII. 



not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that com- 
eth in the name of the Lord ! 



ing to Hase), but with the clear- 
discerning prophecy that at one 
time the people of God shall honor 
him. The still future restoration of 
Israel according to the flesh is an- 
nounced throughout all the Old 
Testament, from Deut. iv. 30, on to 

Zechariah ; he who has not 

read this is not yet able rightly to 
read the prophets." — "I depart 
from you: after this ye shall not 
see me in this temple till ye recog- 
nize me as the Messiah; i. e. ye 
shall never see me in this temple 
again." Kuinoel. But is there 
not another interpretation which is 
more in harmony with our Saviour's 
habits of speech? We have seen 
how often and almost insensibly 
he rises from the literal to the fig- 
urative and spiritual meaning of 
words. " He who saveth his life," 
i. e. his bodily life, " shall lose it," 
i. e. his spiritual life. In this very 



chapter, 25, 26 is an instance of the 
same transition from the literal to 
the spiritual, from the cups and 
platters which the Pharisees used, 
to themselves in their outside con- 
duct and inward life. So here, 
after announcing the destruction 
which is soon to fall upon the Jews 
as a nation, may it not be that he 
turns from the outward rain of the 
city and nation as a whole to the in- 
ward spiritual manifestation of him- 
self which he will make to those 
among them who shall heartily re- 
ceive and acknowledge him as the 
Messiah ? Your house is left unto 
you desolate. My visible ministry 
among you is ended. Hereafter, 
none of you shall see me till, con- 
verted, and born into a higher life, 
ye joyfully behold and recognize me 
as the Son of God. This is sub- 
stantially in accordance with Mr. 
Norton's view. . ^i 



MATTHEW XXIV. 401 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Our Saviour's Gift of Prophecy. 

The question of prophecy is intimately connected with the 
Scriptures, and any attempt to explain the Gospels must be 
incomplete unless it should treat this subject fully and 
fairly. 

1. A prophecy may be merely a message or a simple 
communication in relation to some future event, as, e. g. 
(1 Kings xxi. 17-19) : "And the word of the Lord came 
to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab, 

king of Israel, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou 

killed, and also taken possession ? And thou shalt speak 
unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, In the place where 
dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, 
even thine." The interpretation of dreams (Gen. xl. 8 - 23 ; 
Dan. ii. 31 - 45), the message to Cornelius (Acts x. 1 - 8), 
and the message to Peter in the same chapter are instances 
of this. 

2. An impression in regard to the future may be made 
upon the mind, so as to act upon it with a mysterious power. 
Some insects are endowed with a prophetic instinct, by which 
they provide for the preservation and support of their off- 
spring which are to be born after their death. We find this 
sort of blind but prophetic instinct having a marked influence 
in forming the minds and shaping the destiny of extraordi- 
nary men, such as Julius Caesar, Lord Bacon, Oliver Crom- 
well, and Napoleon. As in the heart of the plant and insect, 
so in the heart of man, it would seem as if there had been 
sometimes implanted from his earliest years a propelling 
power urging him on, he hardly knows how or why, to the 

34* Z 



402 MATTHEW XXIV. 

work for which Providence has designed him. Do we not 
see something of this kind working in the heart of a nation ? 
In Rome, e. g., did not this prophetic conviction of the great 
national destiny which lay before them nerve the people 
with a sterner fortitude under defeat, and prompt them to 
more daring enterprises, and thus help them to accomplish 
the designs of Providence ? Or is this an idea attributed to 
them by later writers in describing the deeds of their ances- 
tors, after the imperial grandeur of the nation had become an 
historical fact ? The history of the Jewish nation furnishes a 
remarkable instance of the same kind. From the time of 
Abraham onward through all their individual and national 
reverses, they were led on by an indefinite but certain assur- 
ance of future greatness and glory. This impression, repeat- 
edly renewed, was continued from Abraham to Moses, from 
Moses to David, from David on his throne, through a suc- 
cession of prophets, to Daniel an exile and captive. What- 
ever may be thought of specific prophecies, this expectation 
of a destiny beyond what had fallen to the lot of any other 
people has followed them from the earliest times recorded 
in their history down to the present hour. However indis- 
tinct their expectations may have been, however mistaken 
the interpretation which they have put upon it, and however 
misguided their conduct under it, that such an expectation 
has existed among them for thousands of years is a fact 
which can hardly be called in question by any intelligent 
and careful student of history. As we examine their records, 
we find notices of great men rising up from age to age, who, 
professing to be moved by a divine inspiration, foreshadowed 
sometimes more and sometimes less distinctly the coming of 
a most extraordinary person, whose influence should be felt 
throughout the whole world. Abraham is told (Gen. xviii. 
18) that " all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in 
him." Moses (Deut. xviii. 18) says, " The Lord thy God 
will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of 
thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken." 



MATTHEW XXIV. 



403 



Sometimes he is described as a conqueror (Ps. ex.), some- 
times as the Prince of peace (Isa. ix. 6), under whose mild 
and powerful reign (Isa. ii. 4) " nation shall not lift up sword 
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." He 
shall be endowed with a divine wisdom, authority, and 
strength (Isa. xi. 2-10) to uphold the poor and meek. " By 
him the eyes of the blind (Isa. xxxv. 5, G) shall be opened, 
and the tongue of the dumb shall sing," and yet he is to be 
(Isa. liii.) a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, pour- 
ing out his soul unto death. These and other visions of fu- 
ture greatness and power, many of them conflicting with the 
prevailing notions of the times when they appeared, were 
given from generation to generation, especially when times 
of great na|jonal corruption were about to be followed by 
their just retribution. Through the darkness of the impend- 
ing evils announced as the judgments of God there comes 
always this light of promise from beyond. This is a most 
remarkable feature running through all the prophetic writ- 
ings. However severe the calamities which are announced, 
whatever desolation of fire and sword may fall upon the 
land, though the whole remnant of the people should be car- 
ried away into captivity, there is still a great and glorious 
future. We think no one can read even the minor prophets 
without recognizing this extraordinary feature in their pre- 
dictions. Whether we call them seers or poets, whether we 
regard them as moral teachers or inspired prophets, this fea- 
ture still remains in their writings, and it marked the con- 
duct of their greatest men in the most hopeless periods of 
their history. The writers, even though they were divinely 
inspired prophets, may not themselves have comprehended 
in full the character of the deliverer or of the era whose 
coming they foretold. John the Baptist, whom Jesus de- 
clared (xi. 11) not inferior to the greatest of them all, evi- 
dently did not fully understand the Saviour, or the nature of 
his kingdom. Daniel, after one of his sublime prophecies, says 
(Dan. xii. 8, 9), " And I heard, but I understood not ; then 



404 MATTHEW XXIV. 

said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things*. 
And he said, Go thy way, Daniel ; for the words are closed 
up and sealed till the time of the end." This sort of im- 
pression in regard to future events, made upon the mind and 
bodied forth in words or images through a divine influence, 
is a mode of prophecy which we . can easily conceive of as 
possible. 

3. There may be another and still higher form of proph- 
ecy. Future events are folded up in the present as in a 
seed. The oak is already in the acorn, the bird in the egg, 
the man in the child. From the seed the naturalist to a cer- 
tain extent foretells what will be the progress of the plant, 
through each successive period of its growth. So to some 
extent in human affairs, from our knowledge of #nen and the 
influences which act upon them, i. e. from our knowledge of 
causes and the habit of following those causes on in their 
workings, till we begin to understand the laws of succession 
or of progress, we may learn to anticipate events, and to catch 
some glimpses of the future in the present. In proportion 
to the completeness of our insight into causes, and the laws 
of their progress in any particular sphere of activity, will be 
our ability to foresee and foretell future events, 

" Till old experience do attain 
To something like prophetic strain." 

If we suppose a mind divinely quickened in this respect so 
as to look at a glance through causes to their immediate 
or remote results, and determine with certainty the course 
of events in the complicated web of human affairs, we 
should have an instance of this third and highest form of 
prophecy. It is the way in which all future events lie 
open to the Omniscient Mind. 

Now this is the form under which our Saviour's prophetic 
endowments manifested themselves in perfect harmony 
with all the other manifestations of his greatness. We 
have seen above (pp. 128-135) that his miracles were 
"his works," as natural and easy to him as our ordinary 



MATTHEW XXIV. 405 

actions are to us. In his views of death (see above, pp. 
174, 175) we have seen him, in the plane of his ordinary 
thought, recognizing the existence of a higher world, which 
lay as much open to his spiritual insight as the material 
world does to our bodily senses. So from time to time he 
foretells future events, not as something specially communi- 
cated to him, but as lying within the plane of his ordinary 
thought. As, from his knowledge of the laws of nature, 
to use his own illustrations, he foresaw that a cloud from 
the west would bring rain, that a south wind would be 
followed by heat, and that when the fig-tree put forth her 
leaves the summer would be nigh, so also from " the signs 
of the times " he foresaw future events. From his knowl- 
edge of the laws of the moral universe, and his insight into 
the condition of society and the souls of men, he saw in the 
world of human passions and interests, and the influences 
which encompassed them, unerring indications of events 
which must ensue. In the souls of Peter and Judas he 
foresaw the denial and repentance of one, and the treachery 
of the other. In the character of priests and rulers, as 
contrasted with his own pure doctrine and life, he foresaw 
the antagonism which could result only in his death. So 
at this time he saw the utter and irremediable corruption 
of the nation, — justice poisoned at the fountain, wickedness 
sustained and honored under the forms of law, falsehood, 
murder, impiety and all uncleanness disguised and rever- 
enced under the forms of religion, the people rapidly 
ripening for judgment in the accumulated guilt of ages. 
The crimes enumerated in the twenty-third chapter are 
the premises from which the judgments afterwards an- 
nounced follow as necessary and logical conclusions. 

Those judgments consist in the destruction of Jerusalem 
and the retributions which lie beyond the sphere of the 
senses. The rapidity with which Jesus passes from one 
to the other class of judgments is what makes the diffi- 
culty in the interpretation of this prophetic discourse. 



406 MATTHEW XXIV. 

As was natural to one who looked with equal ease and 
clearness through the physical and the spiritual world, 
his thought and his language go easily from one to the 
other, and often without any word to mark the point of 
transition. The destruction of Jerusalem, which is so dis- 
tinctly foretold as the judgment of God on a wicked 
people, is to him an emblem, or rather the foreground, of 
the judgments which reach on from their early indications 
and partial fulfilment here to their perfect consummation 
hereafter. It is difficult for us who are shut up so closely 
within the senses to understand the true perspective in 
the views of one who with equal ease comprises both worlds 
within the sphere of his vision. The present glances on to 
the future, and the future throws back its light or its shadows 
into the present. The two worlds are united and blended 
by almost insensible gradations into one comprehensive 
plan. The sharp distinctions by which they are separated 
to us are hardly recognized by him. This mortal life, 
with its germ of immortality unfolding itself here, is only 
the beginning of the eternal life which reaches through the 
everlasting ages. The horizon of his thought lies always 
in that higher life and world ; and unless we constantly 
recognize this fact, we can hardly understand aright any 
word that he uttered. Least of all can we understand the 
prophetic imagery by which he lays before us the future 
judgments of God, which display them partially here and 
perfectly hereafter. From the foreground of visible cir- 
cumstances and events he is constantly following his prin- 
ciples on to the vast and mysterious background beyond. 
There is no dark line of separation between the two, and 
we may not always be able to determine when the scenery 
is shifted from one to the other. 



MATTHEW XXIV. 1-35. 407 

1 - 35. The Coming op the Son of Man in Judgment 
to the Jews. 

Bearing these remarks in mind, we shall endeavor to 
explain the extraordinary predictions before us. In the 
previous chapter we are told that Jesus pointed out the 
causes of the national ruin, and foretold the destruction 
of Jerusalem. On leaving the temple, the disciples, as if 
incredulous, and supposing that they must have misunder- 
stood what he had said, came to call his attention to the 
buildings within the sacred enclosure, and the immense 
stones of which they were composed. In this way they 
probably meant to indicate to him that it was impossible 
that the destruction of the city and temple which lie had 
foretold should take place. Titus himself, after he had taken 
the city, when examining the strength of its fortifications, 
is represented by Josephus (Wars of the Jews, VI. 9. 1) 
as expressing a similar thought. " We have certainly," he 
said, ' ; had God for our assistant in this war ; and it was 
no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these 
fortifications. For what could the hands of men, or any 
machines, do towards overthrowing these towers?" Jesus 
knew the thought of his disciples. He also knew that 
walls and towers and the most desperate courage furnish 
no adequate security for a hopelessly corrupt and wicked 
people. He therefore replied to his disciples only by re- 
peating more explicitly what he had already said. " See ye 
not all these things ; verily I say unto you, There shall not 
be left here a stone upon a stone which shall not be thrown 
down." In less than forty years from the time when these 
words were spoken, i. e. in September, A. D. 70, Jerusalem 
was taken, and the temple was utterly destroyed, in spite 
of the earnest efforts of Titus, the Roman general, to save it. 
Dr. Robinson (Researches, &c, I. p. 436) says of Matt. 
xxiv. 1, 2 : " This language was spoken of the buildings 
of the temple, the splendid fane itself, and its magnificent 



408 MATTHEW XXIV. 1 - 35. 

porticos ; and in this sense the prophecy has been terribly 
fulfilled, even to the utmost letter. Or, if we give to the 
words a wider sense, and include the outer works of the 
temple, and even the whole city, still the spirit of prophecy 
has received its full and fearful accomplishment; for the 
few substructions which remain serve only to show where 
once the temple and the city stood." 

After Jesus had uttered this prediction, he went out to the 
Mount of Olives. While he was sitting there, four of his 
disciples, Peter, James, John, and Andrew (Mark xiii. 
3), came to him privately, and asked when these things 
should be. "And what shall be the sign of thy coming 
and of the end of the world?" These last two events, how- 
ever imperfectly understood by the disciples, were grouped 
together, and evidently regarded by them as belonging to 
the same grand manifestation of the Messiah's kingdom. 
From 4 to 35 is the reply to their question. The principal 
subject is the destruction of Jerusalem, and the signs which 
should precede and accompany it, interspersed with such 
cautions and warnings as might be useful to his followers. 
First, he warns them, 5, against the false Christs, whose 
pretensions and influence in leading men astray would be a 
natural consequence of the feverish and mistaken expecta- 
tions of the Messiah on the part of the Jews. Then, 6, 7, 
shall be wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against na- 
tion, and kingdom against kingdom, famines, pestilences, and 
earthquakes. Yet all these, 8, are only the beginning of 
sorrows, — the beginning of the death-agony in which the 
old order of things should perish, and of the birth-throes by 
which the world should be born into a higher life. Then 
shall succeed, 9, persecutions and martyrdoms ; many, 10, 
shall be offended, and they shall betray and hate one 
another. False prophets, 11, who usually abound amid the 
superstitious fears which mark the great epochs of national 
corruption, shall rise and lead many astray, and, 12, because 
of iniquity many will be discouraged, and their love shall 



MATTHEW XXIV. 1-35. 409 

grow cold. But, lie says, 13, rising in thought from these 
earthly calamities to the higher life into which the faithful 
shall enter, "He that shall endure unto the end, the same 
shall be saved." (See Rev. ii. 10.) The Gospel, 14, must 
first be preached in all the world, i. e. through all the known 
world, or the Roman empire. 

Here were the signs which should precede the great event, 
and bring on the end. How far were they fulfilled ? Any 
one who will read from the latter part of the second to the 
fifth Book of the Jewish Wars, by Josephus, may see how 
exactly, in its general features, the condition of the Jews, 
and of the Roman empire, as it appeared to the Jews dur- 
ing the few years previous to the destruction of Jerusalem, 
corresponded to the picture here given. The Jews were 
engaged in wars against one another, and in fatal outbreaks 
against the Romans. "War in the immediate neighbor- 
hood," says Stier, " ever growing alarms in the distance, terri- 
fying rumors of war, commotions and tumults of the people 
against each other, this is in reality, on the small scale, the 
picture of the time as described by Josephus, which, with 
every year, became more exactly applicable. The wars 
were certainly, at that time, more of the nature of insurrec- 
tions, tumults here and there (Luke xxi. 9), manifold com- 
motions and massacres, for example, between the Syrian and 
Jewish inhabitants in the cities (nation against nation), such 
as are to be read of in Josephus, Jewish Wars, II. 17, 10, 
18, 1-8: according to his expression, 'every city was divid- 
ed into two opposing hosts.' " Confidence between man and 
man was lost. Governments were overthrown. The ties 
by which society is kept together were dissolved, and the 
wretched superstitions and fanatical pretensions which mark 
the absence of a living faith abounded and prevailed. 

As to the literal fulfilment of the prophecy, point by point, 

in its minute specifications, history furnishes no sufficient 

materials for the decision. Christian writers, by whom alone 

any account could be given of the false Christs, 5, have left 

35 



410 MATTHEW XXIV. 1 - 35. 

no records of the events belonging to that period, beyond what 
we gather from the later writings of St. Paul (2 Tim. iii. 
1-13) and St. John. Commentators adduce from different 
historians of that period accounts of famines, pestilences, and 
earthquakes, enough to give a coloring of plausibility to the 
doctrine of a literal fulfilment of ver. 7 ; but we have not the 
historical details which are needed in order to put ourselves 
into the position of those who lived at that time, and to deter- 
mine how they were affected by these events. For this rea- 
son, in accordance with the view which we have taken of 
our Saviour's gift of prophecy, and also in accordance with 
the poetical and prophetic use of language, we incline to re- 
gard the latter part of ver. 7 as carrying out in a figurative 
form the idea begun in the first clause of the sentence : " na- 
tion shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom ; 
and there shall be famines [Teschendorf omits " pestilences "] 
and earthquakes," i. e. great privations, sufferings, and com- 
motions in divers places. As to the persecutions, 9, Peter, 
and Paul, and James the brother of John, and probably 
many others, were put to death before the destruction of Je- 
rusalem. The manner in which some of the early Christians 
were led to betray and hate one another may be inferred 
from Tacitus (Ann. XV. 44), where, in giving an account of 
the destruction of the Christians at Rome by Nero A. D. 64, 
he says, that " some of them were taken who confessed, and 
through them as informers a great multitude were seized," 
and exposed to cruel tortures and death. Eusebius, refer- 
ring to Vespasian as emperor, says ( H. E. III. 8), " At that 
very time the sound of the sacred Apostles had gone out to 
all the earth, and their words to the uttermost parts of the 
world," the word used by him for world being the same that 
is used in the passage before us, ver. 14. St. Paul (Col. i. 
23) speaks of the Gospel, which then, about A. D. 63, " was 
preached to . every creature which is under heaven." 

The preliminary signs are now finished. " Then shall the 
end come." The last and fatal series of events is at hand. 



MATTHEW XXIV. 1-35. 411 

When, therefore, 15, ye see the abomination of desolation 
spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in a (not the) holy 
place (*' standing where it ought not," Mark xiii. 14), let them 
who are in Judaea flee to, or, as Alford translates it, over, along, 
across the mountains. Whoso readeth, let him understand, is 
a word of warning put in by the Evangelist, as it also is by 
Mark, to direct the attention of those who might be living at 
the time of its fulfilment to the sign here given. It is im- 
possible now to determine precisely what the sign was. The 
passage referred to may be found in Dan. ix. 27, or xii. 11. 
Josephus says (Ant. X. 11. 7), "Daniel wrote concerning 
the Roman government, and that our country should be 
made desolate by them." But what was this " abomination 
of desolation," or " desolating abomination " ? "Whatever it 
may have been, as used by Jesus, it undoubtedly was meant 
to apply to some event which the Christians would under- 
stand as connected with the terrible calamities that should 
immediately precede the destruction of Jerusalem. Luke in 
the parallel passage says (xxi. 20), " But when ye shall 
see Jerusalem compassed by armies." This may have been 
the explanatory clause inserted by Jesus immediately after 
the words recorded by Matthew and Mark, so that the whole 
passage would read as follows : " When, therefore, ye shall 
see the desolating abomination spoken of by the prophet 
Daniel standing, where it ought not, in a holy place, — when 
ye shall see Jerusalem compassed by armies, then know that 
its desolation draweth near. Let them who are in Judaea 
flee over the mountains." This appears to us, upon the 
whole, to be the most probable reading of the passage. If 
so, we are to see its fulfilment in the Roman armies with 
their eagles, which, as objects of idolatrous worship on the 
part of the legions, were an abomination to the Jews ; and 
certainly in the miseries and slaughter which came with 
them they were a desolating abomination. Whenever, there- 
fore, the Christians should see Jerusalem thus invested by 
armies, they were to seek for refuge among or beyond the 



412 MATTHEW XXIV. 1-35. 

mountains. This event took place when the Romans under 
Cestius Gallus encamped around Jerusalem, A. D. 66, or 
about four years before the final siege of the city by Titus, 
A. D. 70. Josephus, in his Wars of the Jews (II. 19. 6), 
says that when Cestius made his attack on Jerusalem, a 
horrible fear seized upon the seditious, and many of them 
ran out of the city as if it were to be taken immediately, and 
that after Cestius had left the city (II. 20. 1), " many of the 
eminent Jews swam away from the city, as from a ship when 
it was going to sink." The Christians must at that time 
have been numerous in Jerusalem. May not the precipitate 
flight urged by our Saviour when the sign should be given 
be that which is mentioned in these passages by Josephus ? 
Eusebius (H. E. III. 5) says : " The people of the church 
in Jerusalem being commanded by a divine revelation, which 
had been given to their leaders before the war, to leave the 
city, and to dwell in a city of Peraea, which they call Pella, 
those who believed in Christ, removing from Jerusalem, 
dwelt there, while holy men utterly deserted the royal me- 
tropolis of the Jews, and the whole country of Judaea, and 
thus the judgment of God followed those who had acted un- 
justly towards Christ and his Apostles, and caused that race 
of ungodly ones utterly to disappear from among men." 
This account, which harmonizes with what Josephus has 
said of the flight from Jerusalem, shows that the warning 
given by Jesus was not in vain. Eusebius, however, does 
not mention what the warning was. As the sign was given 
for the Christians, it would be likely to be understood only 
by them, and as they have handed down no particular ac- 
count of the events connected with the siege of Jerusalem, 
we must be content to remain in ignorance on this point. 
The fact that the sign, whatever it may have been, was un- 
derstood by those for whom it was intended, and that they 
were saved by it, is the only fact that is clearly established 
here by the tradition which Eusebius has transmitted to us. 
The passage in the three Evangelists may be harmonized as 



MATTHEW XXIV. 1 - 35. 413 

follows : " When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with 
armies, and the abomination of desolation spoken of by Dan- 
iel the prophet standing, where it ought not, in a holy place, 
then," &c. This rendering would seem to refer to some sign 
in or near Jerusalem, and immediately connected with the 
Roman armies ; but, notwithstanding what has been said on 
the matter by Hug (see Livermore) and Alford, we are 
wholly unable to determine what specific event is pointed 
out. This harmony of the different expressions used by the 
Evangelist would accord perfectly with the passages which 
we have quoted above from Josephus and Eusebius. 

When the sign, whatever it might be, should appear, then 
the Christians in Judaea were to flee, 16-20, with the ut- 
most haste. But why this haste, if the sign were given four 
years previous to the final and fatal siege of Jerusalem ? In 
our ignorance of the precise position which they held and the 
dangers which threatened them, it is impossible to give a 
specific answer to this question. The four years which fol- 
lowed were years of dismal and overwhelming calamities 
among the Jews. Their miseries were caused even more by 
the cruelty of opposing factions, and the wickedness and 
tyranny of their own leaders, than by the sword of the Ro- 
mans. By separating themselves immediately and utterly 
from the Jews at this early period, the Christians were freed 
from the wretchedness among their countrymen, which ex- 
cited the compassion even of their enemies. Unless they had 
taken this early opportunity to escape, while the Jews were 
wholly intent on driving away the Roman army, they might 
have turned the eyes of hostile factions upon themselves as 
a common enemy, and, thus being cut off from the possi- 
bility of escape, they might have been involved as innocent 
victims in the slaughter. which the Jews were inflicting on 
one another with such merciless and indiscriminate ven- 
geance. In the winter, 20, or rather stormy weather, fleeing 
as they must with their wives and little ones, their sufferings 
would have been greatly aggravated ; and if they should flee 
35 * 






414 MATTHEW XXIV. 1-35. 

upon the Sabbath, though they might not feel bound by the 
strictness of the Jewish observance, they would excite the 
suspicion and bring down upon themselves the hostility of 
the Jews. 

For then, 21, during the four years ending with the siege 
of Jerusalem, shall be great tribulations, " such as was not 
since the beginning of the world, to this time, no, nor ever 
shall be." We have not room to copy from Josephus the 
details which go to prove the fulfilment of this prophecy. 
There were sieges, murders, famines, in Galilee, not less than 
in Judasa, hundreds of thousands slain, mutual and general 
hatred and distrust, with all the miseries attendant on this 
condition of things, before the final siege of Jerusalem ; and 
then, according to the historian's estimates, more than two 
millions and a half of people who had come up to the feast 
of the Passover were crowded together within the walls of 
the doomed and devoted city. There were no cruelties and 
no extremities of suffering to which they were not subjected. 
" No other city," says Josephus (Jewish Wars, V. 10. 5), 
" ever suffered such miseries, nor did any age, from the be- 
ginning of the world, ever breed a generation more fruitful 
in wickedness than this was." Again, he says, in his 
Preface to the Jewish Wars, that " if the miseries of all 
mankind from the creation were compared with those which 
the Jews then suffered, they would appear inferior." 

And except those days should be shortened, 22, no flesh 
would be saved, i. e. the whole race or nation would be 
utterly cut off; but on account of the elect or chosen ones, 
i. e. on account of their influence and prayers, those days 
shall be shortened. "And they," Luke (xxi. 24) adds in 
this place, " shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall 
be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem will 
be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the 
Gentiles be fulfilled." Eleven hundred thousand Jews 
were slain in the siege of Jerusalem, thousands were de- 
stroyed by the sword or by wild beasts for the entertainment 



MATTHEW XXIV. 1-35. 415 

of the Romans at their national festivals, and of the ninety- 
seven thousand taken captive in the war, those above 
seventeen years of age were sent to the works in Egypt or 
distributed through the Roman provinces, and those under 
seventeen were sold as slaves. At Caesarea, Titus mur- 
dered twenty-five hundred Jews in honor of his brother's 
birthday. " Some he caused to kill each other : some were 
thrown to the wild beasts, and others burnt alive." 

If they, 23, 24, " shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, 
or there ; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, 
and false prophets," &c. St. Paul, in what is probably the 
last Epistle that he ever wrote (2 Tim. iii. 1, 13), speaks of 
" the perilous times " that shall come, and of the " evil men 
and seducers," who " shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, 
and being deceived." This was probably written A. D. 68, 
or about two years before the fatal siege of Jerusalem. 
St. John, in his first Epistle (ii. 18), says, "Little children, 
it is the last hour; and as ye have heard that antichrist 
shall come, even now are there many antichrists." Again 
(iv. 1) he says, " But try the spirits whether they are of 
God; because many false prophets are gone out into the 
world." This Epistle was written either just before the 
siege of Jerusalem, or afterwards. In either case its words 
go with those of St. Paul to indicate the state of things 
which our Saviour had foretold as connected with the over- 
throw of the Jewish polity, when " the end," or, as St. John 
calls it, the " last hour," should come. Josephus also, in his 
Jewish Wars (YI. 5), says : "There was then a great num- 
ber of false prophets suborned by the tyrants to impose 

upon the people Now a man that is in adversity 

does easily comply with such promises Thus were 

the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and 
such as belied God himself." Jesus, 26, warns his follow- 
ers not to be led astray by any such pretensions. " For," 
27, "as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth 
even unto the west ; so shall also the coming of the Son of 



416 MATTHEW XXIV. 1-35. 

man be " That is, he comes not with a limited, bodily 
presence, in the wilderness or the secret chambers, but in 
the power of his religion overspreading the whole land, like 
the lightning, which, confined to no one spot, fills the whole 
sky. With the downfall of the Jews, the new religion 
will rise as the fulfilment of the old, and in its advancement 
Christ will manifest his presence to the world, as he did in 
the judgments which fell at that time upon the Jews. " For," 
28, "wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles," 
more properly the vultures, " be gathered together." Where 
moral death and corruption are, there the judgments of God, 
like vultures, shall come to clear away the pollutions of 
the land, — a retribution for the past, a preparation for 
the future. 

Immediately after, 29, or rather in connection with, the 
tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and 
the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall 
from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be 
shaken. Josephus speaks of "a star resembling a sword, 
which stood over the city; and a comet that continued 
a whole year." But the language is rather to be taken 
figuratively. " That is," says Lightfoot, " the Jewish heaven 
shall perish, and the sun and moon of its glory and hap- 
piness shall be darkened and brought to nothing. The 
sun is the religion of the church ; the moon is the govern- 
ment of the state ; and the stars are the judges and doctors 
of both." We doubt whether the language was intended 
for so specific an application. We speak of a dark and 
dreadful day, or a dark and troubled night, to describe 
a period of great public or private misery. Oriental writers 
carry their figures of speech more into details than is 
allowed by the usages of language among us, and give 
the particulars which go to fill out the idea of gloom and 
sorrow. It is not merely a dark day, but "the sun is 
darkened ; " — not merely a dark and dismal night of grief 
and pain, but its darkness, the moon refusing to give her 



MATTHEW XXIY. 1-35. 417 

li^ht, should be rendered more frightful by the portentous 
glare of falling stars, and in the universal consternation 
and distress, men's hearts failing them for fear, the very 
powers of the heavens should be shaken. Every source 
of light or hope to which men had been accustomed to 
look up should be withdrawn, amid troubles and terrific 
commotions in what had seemed to them most elevated 
and stable among the powers by which the order and 
government of the world had been sustained. 

The same powerfully figurative language is continued. 
"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man 
in heaven, " 30 ; not the sign shall appear in heaven, but, 
" Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man that he 
is in heaven." Then, when the rites of their own religion 
shall no longer be observed, when (Josephus, Jewish Wars, 
VI. 2. 1) the daily sacrifice (Dan. xii. 11) shall be taken 
away, and the city overthrown with such sufferings and 
slaughters as never had been known before, — when such 
unspeakable calamities have fallen upon them, then shall 
all the tribes of the land smite their breasts, then shall 
appear the sign which I have now made known to you 
of the Son of man in heaven, and they who refused to 
recognize him before shall in these events see him coming 
in power and great glory to establish his kingdom on the 
earth. " The Jews," says Kuinoel, " will recognize the ma- 
jesty and power of the Messiah as their Judge, when, as 
a punishment for their perversity and madness, he shall 
mournfully exhibit them in the overthrow of their temple 
and city. The Hebrew prophets use the same image which 
occurs here. TVhen they would describe God as declaring 
his majesty, they speak of him as about to come sitting 
upon the clouds, whether it be to bring assistance or to 
pass judgment (Deut. xxxiii. 26; Isa. xix. 1)." 

"And," 31, "he shall send his angels," &a "When 
Jerusalem shall be reduced to ashes, and that wicked 
nation cut off and rejected, then shall the Son of man 






418 MATTHEW XXIV. 36-51. 

send his ministers with the trumpet of the Gospel, and 
they shall gather together his elect of the several nations, 
from the four corners of heaven." Lightfoot. He shall 
send forth his angels, the messengers of salvation, and as 
with the sound of a trumpet, which was used to call re- 
ligious assemblies together, he shall gather his chosen 
ones, i. e. those who hear and obey the call, into his Church 
throughout the whole earth. As a matter of fact, the 
religion of Jesus prevailed wonderfully after its most in- 
fluential and violent opponents and persecutors had been 
cut off in the wars which ended with the destruction of Jeru- 
salem. "It was after this period," as Adam Clarke has 
said, " that the kingdom of Christ began, and his reign was 
established in almost every part of the earth." That there 
might be no mistake as to the time included in this proph- 
ecy, and as to what was there meant by his coming and 
the end of the world, — ceon or dispensation, — he distinctly 
declares, 34, that the generation then before him should 
not pass away till all these things were fulfilled. 

36-51. The Coming op the Son of Man est Judgment 
to All. 

At the thirty-sixth verse is the point of transition from 
God's judgment, as shown in the destruction of a wicked 
city and nation, to his judgment in its wider application 
to the whole family of man. All that has been predicted 
thus far applies primarily to the destruction of Jerusalem, 
and would be accomplished before that generation should 
pass away. In the foreground of the prophetic picture 
lie the events which should precede, and the circumstances 
of dread and horror which should accompany, that great 
national catastrophe. These events are distinctly portrayed 
and their limits fixed. But beyond them, in a background 
reaching onward into eternity, is another and kindred class 
of events, which are also denoted by the coming of the 



MATTHEW XXIV. 36-51. 419 

Son of man, and of which the precise limits are not to be 
distinguished or defined. The time when the holy city 
should be overthrown had been fixed, and the signs of 
its approach pointed out. But of that day and hour, when 
this more extended series of events included in the general 
judgment of our race should be completed, no man could 
know, not the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the 
Father only (Mark xiii. 32). Only He whose omniscient 
mind takes in all causes, and sees in them all future 
results as already present, can determine that. 

The idea which fills out the whole picture or succession 
of pictures, and harmonizes all their parts, is the idea of 
a divine retribution. This shows itself in the foreground ; 
then, 37 — 39, it goes back to the times of Noah and of 
Lot, and from the past goes on again to the future., dwell- 
ing at first on single examples, and finally gathering up 
all separate incidents and souls and ages into one over- 
powering scene of divine majesty and justice. 

At first we seem to be lingering still around Jerusalem 
in those days of impending ruin, as if, after its destruction 
had been foretold and language pointing on to a wider 
range of judgments had been used, he at first, in his refer- 
ence to the flood and to Sodom (Luke xvii. 28), employed 
images equally applicable to both classes of events. From 
this point, however, there is nothing which can be construed 
as applying, like what has gone before, distinctly and 
exclusively to the destruction of Jerusalem. The coming 
of the Son of man carries us into a wider field, until at 
length we see the whole human family standing before 
him in judgment. 

A great deal is said about types. May it not be that 
all the language relating to the destruction of Jerusalem 
was meant to be a type of the general judgment? Is there 
not this double meaning running through it ? In the sense 
in which the expressions type and double meaning are 
commonly used by theologians, we answer, No. 



420 MATTHEW XXIV. 36-51. 

Nothing has added so much to the perplexity and confu- 
sion of ideas in the study of this discourse, as the notion of a 
double meaning running through it. But, in another sense, 
it is typical, as every fact in nature is, of something beyond 
itself. A falling globule of water, as an expression of the law 
of gravitation, is typical of the form and motion of the stars, 
and thus a type of the whole frame and structure of the mate- 
rial universe. Almost every incident or fact mentioned by 
our Saviour is so put by him, that it stands forth as the ex- 
pression of a general law, and the type of whatever may be 
brought about in accordance with that law. The clothing 
of the lilies, and the feeding of the ravens, as an expression 
of the paternal benignity and providence of God, is made a 
type of the still greater kindness which he always exercises 
towards us. The corn of wheat (John xii. 24), which, ex- 
cept it fall into the ground and die, abideth alone, but if it 
die it bringeth forth much fruit, as an expression of the 
great law of self-sacrifice in order to the attainment of the 
highest results, is typical of every fact included under that 
law, and especially of the death of Christ and the unmeas- 
ured benefits resulting from it. So the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, as an expression of the Divine justice, or of the judg- 
ments of God, is typical of every fact included under that 
law, and especially of the righteous retribution which awaits 
every soul, when at the close of its probation here it is 
called to judgment. The coming of the Son of man in 
the destruction which fell on a city and people hopelessly 
corrupt, as an expression of a great law, is typical of 
Christ's advent to judgment, with regard to every soul that 
appears before him. The difficulty usually is in detecting 
the deep and hidden law which serves as a bond of union 
between one class of facts and another. As, in natural sci- 
ence, superficial resemblances are disregarded, and, by a 
law of association which it is difficult for the uninitiated to 
recognize, the strawberry, the mountain-ash, the black- 
berry, and the apple are placed side by side in the same 






MATTHEW XXIV. 36 - 51. 421 

family, so in our Saviour's words facts are sometimes 
grouped together which have little or no superficial resem- 
blance, though they are vitally connected as representa- 
tives of the same law. In this way language is employed 
in describing one class of facts, which applies with equal 
force to other and kindred, though apparently dissimilar, 
classes of facts. Almost all the language on which we have 
been commenting in this chapter, and which describes with 
such terrific power the events connected with the overthrow 
of the Jewish ritual and nation, designates with great force 
the general law of retribution in its application to our race ; 
and with most readers this last is the only lesson which it 
teaches. On the other hand, when the subject is really 
changed, as it is in verse 86, from one to another kindred 
class of facts, those two classes of facts are in the mind and 
the language of Jesus bound together so closely, by the same 
uniting law, that only a slight and indefinite notice is given 
of the transition, and it is only by the closest attention that 
we can discover precisely where the change has taken 
place. 

Jesus has just spoken, 36, of the uncertainty of "that day 
and hour," and would make this uncertainty a reason for 
watchfulness to all. As, in the time of Noah, the flood came 
unexpectedly upon a world absorbed in other cares, so shall 
the coming of the Son of man be. No man can tell when his 
"day" shall come. " Then two men shall be in the field; one 
is taken, one is left. Two women grinding at the mill, turn- 
ing with their hands the same stone ; one is taken, one is left. 
Watch, therefore, for ye know not whai day your Lord doth 
come." How could this language apply to the destruction of 
Jerusalem? Jesus has already, 15, 1 6, pointed out the sign by 
which his followers are to be saved from that catastrophe. 
In the 34th verse he has limited the time within which that 
series of events is to take place. But the same idea of a di- 
vine retribution, which is there characterized as the coming 
of the Son of man, is here carried out in the divine retribu- 
36 



422 MATTHEW XXIV. 

tion which awaits every man at the close of this mortal life, 
and which is to him the coming of the Son of man in judg- 
ment, when, as St. Paul describes it, " we must all appear 
before the judgment-seat of Christ." We are not all called 
at once. Even with those most intimately connected, " one 
is taken, one is left." No man knoweth when the call shall 
be made to him. How perfectly and with what a powerful 
warning does this language hold up before us the uncer- 
tainty of life, and the certainty of judgment ! No philo- 
sophical precision of speech could address itself to the heart 
with such truth and power. The same idea is dwelt upon 
and enforced with still greater distinctness in the ensuing par- 
ables. The parable which closes this chapter, and which 
applies to " that " unknown " hour " which comes to all, is 
too direct and explicit in its appeal to each soul to allow of 
any labored comment. It applies to our conduct here as a 
preparation for that solemn moment when the Son of man 
shall come to each one of us at the close of our mortal la- 
bors, and the interests of this world shall be lost in the retri- 
butions of the world to come. He comes, first, to every soul 
in the offers of mercy and salvation which he makes. He 
comes to all, when they receive him, and strive to obey 
him, with loving and believing hearts. His final coming to 
each one is when he shall call us to account for the use that 
we have made of his gifts. 

Conclusion. 

We have endeavored to explain this remarkable prediction 
of our Saviour. We have shown how the part of it which 
applied to " that generation " was fulfilled, not literally per- 
haps in all its parts, but exactly in accordance with its spirit. 
And this is the way in which we are to interpret and apply, 
not only the highest prophecy, but the highest poetry, the 
profoundest inductions of philosophy, and the grandest gen- 
eralizations of transcendental mathematics. The literal, 






MATTHEW XXIV. 423 

precise interpretation of a single expression is often false, 
and false in proportion to the magnitude of the truth which 
soars up in its majestic proportions through such words and 
images as our human forms of speech and thought may fur- 
nish. Any one may see that a literal, prosaic interpreta- 
tion of King Lear, or Paradise Lost, sentence by sentence, 
in order to show precisely what facts are proved by them, 
would do no sort of justice to the grander movements of soul 
which fill out with their inspiration every part of those won- 
derful works. Far more in the prophetic words of our Sav- 
iour, which so far surpass all the other words that have ever 
been spoken, it is the letter that killeth. No one, whether 
as the advocate or the enemy of our faith, can understand 
them, unless he enter beneath the letter into the spirit, and 
thus catch as he may something of the inspiration, the large- 
ness of thought and affluence of life, which they are fitted to 
awaken and impart. The humble inquirer, entering thus 
into the heart of our Saviour's words that he may cherish 
their spirit and obey their commands, will come nearer to the 
essential truth which they are designed to teach, than the 
ablest scholar, who, without religious sympathies, or with a 
superstitious regard to the letter, seeks to analyze them by 
applying critically, sentence by sentence, the rules of the 
grammar and lexicon. 



NOTES. 

And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple ; and his 
disciples came to him, for to show him the buildings of the 

1. to show him the build- destruction of the temple could ap- 
ings] They were amazed at his ply to an event so utterly improba- 
words, and, wondering whether ble as that, they point out to him 
they could have understood him the massive structures within the 
aright, instead of asking directly sacred enclosure, and say, " Master, 
whether what he had said of the see what manner of stones and 



424 



MATTHEW XXIV. 



temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not> all these 
things ? verily, I say unto you, there shall not be left here one 

stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And 

as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto 
him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be ? and 
what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the 



what manner of buildings." (Mark 
xiii. 1.) The temple had been built 
by Herod the Great, who employed 
18,000 men on the work for nine 
years before the building could be 
used at all. Additions were contin- 
ually making afterwards till A. d. 
64. It was first occupied about 
eight years before the birth of 
Jesus; but as the work was still 
going on, it might be said to Jesus 
by the Jews, as in John ii. 20, that 
it had then been forty and six years 
in building. Sixteen years added to 
thirty — the age of Jesus at that 
time — would make the forty-six. 
Some of the stones employed in the 
building are represented by Jose- 
phus as more than 70 feet long, 10 
wide, and 8 high. Even Tacitus, 
accustomed as he was to the impe- 
rial wealth and grandeur of Soman 
architecture, speaks of the temple 
as of unmeasured opulence, " im- 
mense opulentire templum." 

2. there shall not be left 
here one stone upon another] 
According to Josephus (Jewish 
Wars, VII. 1. 1), the Roman general 
gave orders to demolish the entire 
city and temple, except three tow- 
ers, which were left to show poster- 
ity what kind of a city it had been. 
" But for all the rest of the wall," 
he says, " it was* so completely lev- 
elled with the ground by those that 
dug it up to the foundation, that 
there was nothing left to make 
those who came thither believe it 
had ever been inhabited." 

3. And as he sat upon the 
Mount of Olives] Opposite to 
Jerusalem, and probably in full 
view of the temple, on which the 
light of the moon, then nearly 
full, would shine. when 

shall these things be ?] The 
question was put privately by four 
of the disciples (Mark xiii. 3). 



and what shall be the sign 
of thy coming, and of the end 
of the world?] The fulfilment of 
the prediction, the coming of the 
Son of man, and the end of the 
world, i. e. the consummation of the 
ceon, are here put together as belong- 
ing to the same family of events. 
In this instance they primarily and 
distinctly refer to the destruction of 
Jerusalem, the dispersion of the 
Jewish people, and the passing away 
of the Mosaic dispensation as the 
authorized religion of the land. 
The disciples who put the question 
to Jesus undoubtedly supposed that 
his great but earthly kingdom was 
then to be established in Judsea, 
and that when he came to close the 
old dispensation, (in the end of the 
world, — the consummation of the 
ceon,) he would commence his kingly 
reign upon the earth, clothed with 
authority and power like other 
kings, only with a greater majesty 
and a more universal dominion. In 
his reply he uses the terms, coming 
of the Son of man, the end, first in 
reference to the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, but also, according to his 
usual maimer, in such a way as to 
show forth other and grander truths. 
The retribution which was at length 
to fall upon the Jews, the end of 
their dispensation, and the coming 
of the Son of man in judgment to 
them, were also terms equally ap- 
plicable to every human being. 
The- images here used to describe a 
particular case so set forth a uni- 
versal principle of divine retribu- 
tion, that in almost eveiy instance 
they may be applied now to men in 
their individual experiences. The 
way in which the specific language 
of Jesus is made to embody princi- 
ples of universal application is more 
marvellous than any miracle which 
he wrought. But because his Ian- 



MATTHEW XXIV. 



425 



4 world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed 

5 that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, 

6 saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall 
hear of wars, and rumors of wars : see that ye be not troubled ; 
for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against 
kingdom ; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and 

8 earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of 

9 sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and 
shall kill you ; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my 

10 name's sake. And then shall many be offended ; and shall 
li betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many 

12 false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because 

13 iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But 
he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 

u And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the 
world, for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall the end 

15 come. "When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of 

desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy 

16 place, (whoso readeth, let him understand,) then let them which 



gtiage is so overcharged with mean- 
ing, reaching out in every direction, 
it is exceedingly difficult in any 
single instance to do justice to its 
fulness by any one specific interpre- 
tation. We must bear this in mind, 
especially in our attempts to under- 
stand a vast, sublime, and compre- 
hensive discourse like this, which 
takes up almost as much space in 
the Gospels as the Sermon on the 
Mount, and which, if the whole of 
ir were confined to the destruction 
of Jerusalem, would occupy a place 
wholly out of proportion to its im- 
portance in the records of a divine 
and universal religion. 
4. Take heed "that no man 
deceive you] Calamities may 
come, many and fearful, — impos- 
tors, rumors of wars, famines and 
earthquakes, — but these are only 
the preliminary symptoms, — the 
beginning of those' birth-pangs by 
which the regeneration, the birth of 
the new world or dispensation, is to 
be accomplished. 13. he 

that shall endure unto the 
36* 



end] This may refer to the escape 
from impending' death of the Chris- 
tians, who remembered these warn- 
ings, and held out to the end in their 
fidelity to Christ. But the language 
applies with ecpial force to the re- 
ward of fidelity which shall crown 
with salvation every one who con- 
tinues faithfully to the end. 

14. in all the world] throughout 
the Roman empire, or the known and 
habitable world. In consequence of 
the unsettled state of Palestine, and 
the persecutions there, the ministers 
of Christ went abroad, more than 
they otherwise might have done, 
among all nations, — into Asia Mi- 
nor, and the remote East, into Af- 
rica, and through Europe to the 
western boundaries of Spain. 

15. stand in the holy place] in 
a holv place. There is no article. 
The holy place would denote the 
enclosures of the temple. But a 
holy place might be outside of the 
city ; e. g. on the Mount of Olives, 
which was occupied by Roman 
troops previously to the destruction 



426 



MATTHEW XXIV. 



be in Judaea flee into the mountains ; let him which is on the 17 
house-top not come down to take anything out of his house ; 
neither let him which is in the field return back to take his is 
clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them 19 
that give suck, in those days ! But pray ye that your flight be 20 
not in the winter, neither on the sabbath-day. For then shall 21 
be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the 
world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those 22 
days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved ; but 
for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if 23 
any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there ; be- 
lieve it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false 24 
prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch 



of the city. whoso read- 

eth, let him understand] Mat- 
thew probahly wrote his Gospel on 
the eve of the events here foretold; 
and it is supposed that he inserted 
these words to call the attention of 
his readers to the sign here indi- 
cated, and thus warn them of the 
approaching dangers. Mark inserts 
the same caution. 17. on 

the house-top] The roofs being 
flat, those who were on them in 
the city could pass from house to 
house, and thus escape over the 
walls. The expression, however, is 
designed merely to indicate the ne- 
cessity of great haste. 
19. And woe unto them] Here 
is an instance of our Saviour's ten- 
der, thoughtful, and compassionate 
sympathy for women. The expres- 
sion, woe unto them, uttered here 
with such a depth of commisera- 
tion, may also have been spoken 
more in sorrow than in anger, even 
when it occurs in his most terrible 
denunciations, as, for example, in 
the twenty-third chapter. 
22. for the elect's sake] On 
their account. God does interfere to 
change the direction of human af- 
fairs and shorten the season of ter- 
rible calamities on account of his 
elect, — of those who endear them- 
selves to him by their fidelity. 

24. there shall arise false 
Christs] " The nearer the Jews 
were to destruction, the more did 



these impostors multiply, and the 
more easy credit did they find with 
those who were willing to have 
their miseries softened by hope. 
Even during the conflagration of 
the temple, a false prophet encour- 
aged the people with pretended mi- 
raculous signs of deliverance. The 
Jewish Christians themselves were 
very unwilling to give up all hope 
of deliverance from their subjection 
to the Romans: this accounts for 
the language of Christ, when he 
speaks of the danger which the 
elect were in of being deceived by 
these impostors; and shows his 
wisdom and goodness in forewarn- 
ing them against trusting to the fal- 
lacious promises of persons who af- 
firmed confidently that they were 
divinely raised up, to accomplish 
such a deliverance." Kenrick. 

great signs and wonders] 
signs, to convince and mislead them ; 
wonders, or portents and prodigies, 
to perplex and terrify them. In 
times of great public commotion 
and alarm, men's hearts failing 
them for fear because of the uni- 
versal insecurity and distress, they 
feel that desperate measures are 
rendered necessary by the desper- 
ate condition of affairs. When not 
only governments are losing their 
authority, and laws and rulers are 
hated and rebelled against, but the 
whole social fabric is bi*eaking up; 
when a universal distrust succeeds 






MATTHEW XXIV. 



427 



2.5 that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Be- 

26 hold, I have told you before. "Wherefore, if they shall say 
unto you. Behold, he is in the desert ; go not forth : Behold, 

27 he is in the secret chambers ; believe it not. For as the light- 
ning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, 

2$ so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For whereso- 



to confidence in the family relation?, 
and faith is dying out, — then, in the 
Convulsive throes and agitations of 
society, bold, bad men "are in the 
ascendant ; impostors and deceiv- 
ers reign amid the general wreck 
of earthly interests and heavenly 
hopes; with an insane and frantic 
desperation men rush into any ex- 
travagant delusions that are impu- 
dent enough to promise relief. The 
most reckless credulity, at such 
times, succeeds to an utter want of 
faith, in sudden and frenzied alter- 
nations. The dissolution of society, 
the disintegration of all the ele- 
ments of social, moral, and relig- 
ious influence, the universal break- 
ing up, which comes as " the end 
of the world" (crvi/rcXeta rev ala>- 
vos) to the old and long established 
order of things, are marked by these 
wild and terrific changes and exag- 
gerations. It was so in the break- 
ing up of the Jewish polity. It 
was so in Rome, where at about 
the same time, amid similar com- 
motions and catastrophes in the 
moral and social condition of the 
people, the dissolution of the old 
civilization was preparing a way 
for the introduction of higher ideas 
in the coming of the Son of man. 
But there never was a period in the 
Roman history when such extrava- 
gances of superstitious credulity, ac- 
companied by all the worst sorts of 
religious imposture, prevailed, as in 
that unbelieving and godless age. 
Against such times and dangers, 
though they had not begun to show 
themselves when he spoke, Jesus 
uttered these distinct and solemn 
warnings. With his profound and 
prophetic insight into the human 
soul, and into the moral relations of 
cause and effect, he saw then the 
seeds of impiety and superstition, 



credulity and unbelief, which must 
bring forth such a harvest of decep- 
tion and crime, and thus, in the 
overthrow of the past, prepare the 
way for the introduction of the new 
dispensation. Compare with this 
the prophecies (before quoted) in 
the last two chapters of Malachi; 
and the destructive and warlike 
processes by which the kingdom 
spoken of in the one hundred and 
tenth Psalm was to be established. 
See note, xxiii. 39. 
26. Wherefore, if they shall 
say unto vouj " Christ here men- 
tions the very places where these 
deceivers would appear, and Jose- 
phus tells us, that impostors, under 
pretence of a divine inspiration, en- 
deavored to introduce novelty and 
change, and raised the common 
people to such a degree of mad- 
ness, that they drew them forth 
into the desert, pretending that God 
would there make them see the to- 
kens of liberty, i. e. of their being 
rescued from the Roman yoke. He 
also mentions some who" appeared 
in secret chambers, or places of se- 
curity in the city." Kenrick. 

27. so shall also the 
coming of the Son of man 
be] He was to come in judgment 
to the Jews, — the end of the world 
to them, for their world, age, or dis- 
pensation was now to end, — but at 
the same time he was to come in 
his religion, with a new world, age, 
or dispensation, to those who would 
receive him. Herein his coming 
then was an emblem of his final 
coming to all, — in judgment and 
with the loss of all that they most 
valued to the unfaithful and unbe- 
lieving, to those who have lived 
only for this world ; — ■ with a new 
world of life and joy to the penitent 
and the faithful who believe in him. 



428 



MATTHEW XXIV. 



ever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. 

■ Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the 29 

sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and 
the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens 
shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son 30 
of man in heaven ; and then shall all the tribes of the earth 
mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds 
of heaven, with power and great glory. And he shall send his 31 
angels with a great sound of a trumpet ; and they shall gather 



29. Immediately after 
the tribulation of those days 
shall the sun be darkened! 

" ' A day of dax-kness ' is an obvious 
figure for ' a day of distress.' Hence, 
in the Oriental style, a time of utter 
calamity, the destruction of a na- 
tion, is described by the extinction 
of the sun, and the other lights of 
heaven. Thus Isaiah (xiii. 9, 
10), in speaking of the destruction 
of Babylon, says : ' Behold, the day 
of Jehovah is coming, cruel with 
wrath and fierce anger, to lay the 
land desolate and to destroy its 
sinners out of it. For the stars 
of heaven and its constellations 
shall not give their light, and the 
sun shall be darkened in his going 
forth, and the moon shall not cause 
her light to shine.' So also Ezekiel, 
describing the fall of Egypt (xxxii. 
7, 8)." Norton's Translation of the 
Gospels, II. 528. 

30. And then shall appear the 
sign of the Son of man in 
heavenl The fulfilment of the 
events here predicted would be a 
sign of the Son of man in heaven; 
and while all the tribes of the land 
— not of the earth — should smite 
their breasts and mourn, they would 
recognize in these calamities, which 
he had foretold as the downfall of 
their polity and their nation, the evi- 
dence of his truth, and in them would 
see him coming as on the clouds of 
heaven, and with power and great 
glory, to establish the kingdom of 
heaven on earth. in the 

clouds of heaven] This was an 
image familiar to the Jews, and 
was perhaps derived, in the first 
instance, from the pillar of cloud 
which went before them in the wil- 



derness as an emblem of God's 
providential care and presence. 
" The glory of the Lord appeared 
in the cloud." (Ex. xvi. 10.) God 
" called unto Moses out of the midst 
of the cloud." (Ex. xxiv. 16. ) From 
these and similar expressions often 
repeated in the Pentateuch, the idea 
of any special act of Divine inter- 
ference with human affairs Avould 
naturally clothe itself in imagery of 
this sort. Thus when Isaiah (xix. 
1) would represent God as about 
to punish the Egyptians, he says, 
" Behold, the Lord rideth upon a 
SAvift cloud, and shall come into 
Egypt." The language of course 
was figurative. God was not rep- 
resented as visibly or actually rid- 
ing on a cloud. So in the passage 
before us, this image of impressive 
grandeur is emploj^ed to describe 
the majesty of the Son of man 
when he shall come in judgment to 
the Jews, i. e. in the power of those 
divine principles of justice, which, 
as embodied in his religion, were 
then to be enforced, and by which 
the way was to be prepared for the 
wide and speedy establishment of 
the kingdom of heaven, i. e. of his 
religion on the earth. 
31. And he shall send his 
angels] Literally, his messengers. 
In the Gospels the word angel is 
almost always used to denote heav- 
enly beings." But there are excep- 
tions. " And when the messengers 
[angels] of John had departed." 
(Luke vii. 24.) "This is he of 
whom it is written, Behold, I send 
my messenger [angel] before thy 
face." (Luke vii. 27.) When Jesus 
was going up to Jerusalem, he 
" sent messengers [angels] before 



MATTHEW XXIV. 



429 



together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven 

32 to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig-tree ; when 

his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that 

33 summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these 

34 things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say 
unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be 

35 fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away ; but my words 

36 shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no 



his face." (Luke ix. 52.) These 
passages are all from Luke. In the 
other Gospels there is, we believe, 
no instance of a similar use of the 
word, unless in the case before us. 
In the Apocalypse (ii. 1, 8, 18; iii. 
1) the expression "angel of the 
church" is evidently applied to the 
minister or bishop of the church. 
And this, we suppose, is the mean- 
ing of the word in the passage be- 
fore us. When the hitherto pow- 
erful elements of Jewish hostility 
should be overthrown and destroyed, 
and the way open everywhere for 
the more rapid diffusion of the Gos- 
pel, the Son of man would send 
forth his messengers with a great 
sound of a trumpet — the trumpet 
was used by the Jews to call relig- 
ious assemblies together — as her- 
alds of salvation, to gather together 
his chosen ones, i. e. those who 
would hear and obey the call, from 
every quarter under heaven. They 
who' were ready to hear and obey 
would thus be gathered into his 
church. 32. Now learn 

a parable of the fig-tree] " On 
my first arrival in the southern part 
of Syria, near the end of March, 
most of the fruit-trees were clothed 
with foliage, and in blossom. The 
fig-tree, on the contrary, was much 
behind them in this respect, for the 
leaves of this tree do not make their 
appearance till comparatively late 
in the season. As the spring is so 
far advanced before the leaves of the 
fig-tree begin to appear, (the early 
fruit, indeed, comes first,) a person 
may be sure, when he beholds this 
sign, that summer is at hand." 
Hackett. 33. know that 

it is near] When ye shall see all 
these signs fulfilled, then know that 



it — the coming of the Son of man 
in the destruction of Jerusalem — 
is near, nay, is at your very doors. 
34. This generation 

shall not pass] In order to im- 
press it upon his disciples' minds 
that he was not speaking of some 
event in the remote and indefinite 
futiu'e, he fixes the time, as in Matt, 
xvi. 28, within the lifetime of some 
of those avIio belonged to that gen- 
eration. This definite limitation of 
time confines the signs thus far men- 
tioned to a period harmonizing with 
their consummation in the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem and the events 
immediately preceding and follow- 
ing it. At the same time, we must 
admit that much of the language, 
which was unquestionably spoken 
with a specific reference to that 
class of events, may be read now 
with something of a personal appli- 
cation to ourselves. 36. But 
of that day and hour] The 
obvious interpretation of this pas- 
sage is, that though all these things 
shall take place before the present 
generation shall pass away, yet no 
one knows the precise day and hour 
of their fulfilment. But there is 
another interpretation which seems 
to us more in accordance with our 
Saviour's usual method of instruc- 
tion, mingling together as he often 
does things temporal and things 
etei-nal, and passing almost insensi- 
bly from the one order of facts and 
events to the other. The language 
which heretofore, in pointing to a sin- 
gle event, overflows with thoughts 
and images that reach beyond it, 
here ceases to dwell on the single 
instance of divine retribution as the 
principal topic, and, touching only 
incidentally on circumstances con- 



430 



MATTHEW XXIV. 



man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But 87 
as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of 
man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they 33 
were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, 
until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until 39 
the flood came and took them all away ; so shall also the com- 
ing of the Son of man' be. Then shall two be in the field ; 40 
the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall 41 
be grinding at the mill ; the one shall be taken, and the other 
left. Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord 42 



nected with it, holds up, in the 
background, the termination of our 
human and mortal life, and the ret- 
ributions which shall then succeed. 
The transition from the specific to 
the universal is indicated, if not 
distinctly announced, by the words 
employed. " The Lord," says Ben- 
gel, " shows the time of the temple 
and of the city in ver. 32 - 34 ; he 
denies in this verse that the day 
and hour of the world [to each 
soul] are known. The particle 6V, 
but, implies a contrast: the pro- 
nouns ravra, these, avrr), this, refer 
to events close at hand ; the pronoun 
eKeivr]$j that, to that which is dis- 
tant." These things of which I 
have been speaking shall all take 
place in the present generation ; but 
of that day and hour [when the Son 
of man in a still higher sense shall 
come] no one knoweth. That day 
is several times used in this sense. 
" In that day many shall say to me, 
Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in 
thy name, &c. And then will I 
confess to them, I never knew you ; 
depart from me, ye workers of in- 
iquity." (Matt. vii. 22, 23.) " Hence- 
forth there is laid up for me a crown 
of righteousness, which the Lord, 
the righteous judge, shall give me 
at that day." (2 Tim. iv. 8.) Some 
commentators suppose that there is 
no such transition as we have here 
suggested, but that the whole dis- 
course of our Saviour down to the 
end of the twenty -fifth chapter re- 
lates to the destruction of Jerusalem. 
It requires much ingenuity to apply 
all his words to that subject, and 



the majestic images which he em- 
ploys seem to us degraded by such 
a limitation of their meaning. But 
why, if he passed from one subject 
to the other, did he not more dis- 
tinctly indicate the point of transi- 
tion? We can only say, 1. that 
there is what seems to us an indica- 
tion of such a transition; and 2. 
that it was not his habit to mark, 
like a modern logician, the different 
topics of his discourse, especially 
when, as in this case, they were, to 
his mind, only different phases of 
the same thought or illustrations of 
the same principle. To his wonder- 
ful intuitive perceptions, the partic- 
ular included the universal. Partic- 
ular facts were held up as illustra- 
tions of general principles, and facts 
which we from our superficial habits 
of thought regard as wholly distinct 
were grouped together by him, be- 
cause the same underlying principle 
reaches through them all and makes 
them parts of the same series. It 
is only by going down to this under- 
lying thought that we can learn the 
close logical connection by which 
the different parts of his discourses 
are bound together. 42. 

Watch, therefore] "You may 
ask why those who were so far 
distant from the last day were ex- 
horted to watchfulness on that 
ground. I answer, — 1. The remote- 
ness of the event had not been in- 
dicated to them. 2. Those who 
are alive at any particular time 
represent those who will be alive 
at the end of the world. 3. The 
principle of the divine judgments, 
and of the uncertainty of the hour 



MATTHEW XXIV. 



431 



43 doth come. But know this, that, if the goodman of the house 
had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have 
watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken 

44 up. Therefore be ye also ready ; for in such an hour as ye 

45 think not, the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful 
and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his 

46 household, to give them meat in due season ? Blessed is that 
servant whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. 

47 Yerily, I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all 

48 his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, 

49 My lord delayeth his coming ; and shall begin to smite his 

60 fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken ; the 
lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not 

61 for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of; and shall cut 
him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites ; 
there shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth. 



of death, resembles in every age 
that of the last day; and the hour 
of death is equivalent to the hour 
of resurrection and judgment, as 
though no time had been inter- 
posed. 4. The' feeling of the godly, 
■which stretches forward to meet 
the Lord, is the same, whether 
With the longest or the shortest 
expectation." Bengel. To us who 
believe that the day of each one's 
death is the day also of his resur- 
rection and judgment, these re- 
marks come with greater force 
than to Bengel, who believed as 
Martha did (John xi. 24) before 
Jesus had taught her better, that 
we " shall rise again in the resur- 
rection at the last day." 43. 
his house to be broken up] 
bLopvyrjvat, to be dug through. The 
houses, being built of stones and 



clay, might be entered with little 
difficulty by digging through the 
walls. See'note, vi. 19. 45. 

Who then is a faithful] the 
faithful and wise servant. 51. 

and shall cut him asunder] 
cut him in pieces, " a cruel kind of 
punishment practised among the 
Hebrews and other ancient nations." 
Here it is iised figuratively, to de- 
note a severe punishment. It may 
mean to cut off or separate. " He 
will cut him off [from his present 
associates] and assign him his por- 
tion with the hypocrites." 

the hypocrites] This word 
is used by Jesus to denote those 
who have incurred the greatest 
possible guilt, making virtue and 
religion a cloak for their hideous 
crimes against God and man. 



432 MATTHEW XXV. 1-13. 



CHAPTER XXV, 
Purpose of these Parables. 

The conclusions at which we arrived in the last chapter 
make the interpretation of the present chapter easy. From 
the judgments of God which are represented by the coming 
of the Son of man in the retributions which fell on the 
Jewish city and people, the transition (xxiv. 36) is nat- 
ural to the judgments of God which are represented by 
the coming of the Son of man in the retributions which 
await each individual soul when its period of earthly proba- 
tion is ended. The twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters 
are continuous parts of the same discourse, which treats of 
the coming of the Son of man in the retributions of God 
on a wicked city and people, on each individual soul at the 
close of its earthly life, and on all the nations of men. The 
momentous thought which presents itself to any one who 
carefully reads the parables here given, is unquestionably 
that which they were intended to teach. The impression 
which they make as a whole is the true one, and it ought 
not to be weakened or disturbed by any minute analysis of 
the parts. One after another, by images the most awful 
that can be presented to the soul, they would set before us, 
in their most personal and practical form, the principles of a 
divine retribution, and thus keep alive in us a sense of 
solemn accountability to God, and the need of constant 
diligence and watchfulness in our calling. 

Parable of the Virgins. 

1-13. In xxiv. 37-51 we are exhorted to watch, 
because we know not how soon our Lord will come ; and 



MATTHEW XXT. 1-13. 433 

here, by the example of the wise and foolish virgins, we 
are taught not only to be ready now, but to make provision 
also for the future ; for we know not how long we may have 
to wait for his coming. They who are represented by the 
wise virgins " foresee," says Trench, " that they may have 
a long life to live of toil and self-denial, before they are 
called to cease from their labors, before the kingdom shall 
come unto them ; — and consequently feel that it is not a few 
excited feelings which will carry them successfully through 
all tins. They feel that principles as well as feelings must 
be engaged in the work, — that their first good impulses and 
desires will carry them but a very little way, unless they be 
revived, strengthened, and purified by a continual supply of 
the Spirit of God. If the bridegroom were to come at once, 
perhaps it might be another thing, but their wisdom is, that, 
since it may possibly be otherwise, they see their need of 
making provision against the contingency." Another dis- 
tinction between this and the previous parable is, that in 
that acts of wickedness are reproved ; here, a lack of the 
Christian virtues, — not bad oil, but no oil. There is little 
reserved power for the unknown contingencies that may 
arise. "By the lighted lamps," says Gerhard, "may be 
understood the external profession and outward form of 
piety," as well as the sudden emotions connected with it ; 
'• by the oil in the vessels, the inward righteousness of the 
heart, true faith, sincere love, watchfulness, and prudence, 
which, though unnoticed by man, are God's alone." With 
what a solemn emphasis do the words, " and the door was 
shut," fall upon the heart ! The privilege, whatever it may 
be, which we have neglected to prepare ourselves to improve, 
is closed against us. Thus day after day the door is shut ; 
and if at its close the whole of life has failed of its great 
purpose in regard to us, its privileges are all withdrawn, 
the door is shut, and we are left outside in darkness and 
sorrow. 



? 



434 MATTHEW XXV. 14-30. 



Parable of the Talents. 

14-30. This parable goes a step further. Not merely 
must we abstain from cruel and wicked acts ; not merely 
must we have a reserved fund of religious principle for 
future emergencies ; but we must increase that fund by con- 
stant fidelity in the use of it. Not only are we accountable 
for what has been given to us, but also for the gain which 
we might secure by using it with diligence and care. God 
provides us with opportunities according to our several 
abilities. These opportunities are really ours only as we 
avail ourselves of them. He who neglected to use the one 
talent had not even that. The great law of our nature and 
of retributive justice here laid down is, — 1. that we cannot 
really continue to possess any one of God's gifts, except so 
far as we faithfully exercise, appropriate, and improve it ; 
and, 2. that we are accountable, not for the amount that we 
have gained, but for our diligence and fidelity in the use of 
what has been entrusted to us. It is not, Well done, good 
and successful, but good and faithful^ servant, He who had 
gained five, and he who had gained two talents.- are in the 
same terms welcomed to the joy of their Lord. And he 
who came with his one talent was condemned, not because 
he had been unfortunate, but because, harboring evil 
thoughts towards his lord, he had shown himself a wicked 
and slothful servant in the use he had made of the talent 
intrusted to him. Verses 25 - 28 show how an evil dispo- 
sition of mind and heart lies at the bottom of a sluggish and 
unfaithful life. The want of opportunity is oftener the fault 
than the misfortune of those who resort to it as an excuse 
for their evil conduct ; and therefore it can only aggravate 
their condemnation. 

Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. 

31-46. Thus far this world has been in the foreground, 
its characters and acts visibly ripening for the judgments 



MATTHEW XXV. 31 - 46. 4oi) 

which are represented as taking place at the coming of the 
Son of man. Here the higher world is brought forward, 
and the actions of this mortal life, the deeds done in the 
body, lie in the background, and appear only in their results. 
Not the scenes and events of this life, hastening to judg- 
ment, but the judgments which await them in another world, 
are foremost in the picture. Heretofore the mind has dwelt 
on individual cases, — the wicked city and people, the cruel 
servant, the ten virgins, the three servants to whom the 
different talents were intrusted ; but now, by one majestic 
sweep of thought, all individual cases from all ages and 
nations are brought together, and the view is the most awful 
and sublime that has ever been presented in human lan- 
iruao-e. " But when the Son of man shall come in his 
glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the 
throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all the 
nations." So, 2 Cor. v. 10 : ' ; For we must all appear 
before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may 
receive according to Avhat he hath done in the body, whether 
it be good or bad." So again, Rev. xx. 12 : "And I saw 
the dead, small and great, stand before God ; and the books 
were opened." The great fact that every soul shall here- 
after meet a retribution in accordance with its life here, is 
thus set before us in language the most solemn and emphatic. 
And the grounds on which the sentence rests, as in Matt, 
vii. 22, 23, are not outward j^rofessions or forms of belief, 
but the principles of holiness and love manifested on earth, 
though in ways and acts obscure and unrecognized by 
man. He who sits upon the throne of judgment identifies 
himself with every one of his suffering brethren, and in the 
great day of account will acknowledge any act of kindness 
done to the least of them as if it had been done to him. 
Both righteous and wicked are filled with amazement and 
surprise ; but not the less, therefore, shall the words of 
Christ stand ; and the inward life of all, as revealed to him 
in their conduct, shall go on working out for each one the 



436 MATTHEW XXY. 31-46. 

awards of eternal justice. Now that the true character of 
that life is fully manifested in the light of divine truth, or 
the all-enlightening presence of Christ, it fixes its stamp on 
every soul, and divides them even as a shepherd separates 
his sheep from the goats. No longer united by ties of kin- 
dred, the bonds of neighborhood, or the necessities of our 
mortal condition, they are separated from one another, and 
drawn by the very affinities of their nature, these into 
eternal punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. 
Eternal, — an epithet applying to the new era, the more 
advanced condition of being on which they have entered, 
and applying also to the elements or princijDles of spiritual 
life, which are unfolded and exercised here on earth, and 
which then will be all in all. 

The great facts of the Divine retribution — the eternal 
bliss into which the righteous are drawn up, and the eternal 
woe into which the wicked are cast down — are too plainly 
set forth to be the subject of criticism. These central and 
indisputable facts stand unaffected by any just principles of 
criticism. The images of uplifting or appalling grandeur 
in which they are enveloped cannot act too powerfully on 
the imagination and the heart of man. The obscurity in 
which the particulars of our future being are left, was un- 
doubtedly intentional on the part of our Saviour. For 
though the whole matter in its blissful or terrible details 
may have been disclosed to him, he knew that we, in our 
present stage of existence, could not comprehend them, and 
would only be confounded or misled by any language in 
which they might be described. We cannot understand, 
except in a general way, that which in all its particulars 
must lie so far beyond all our experience here. 

For this reason, we attempt no minute definition or 
analysis of the precise images or language employed in this 
grand and awful picture of the retributions of eternity. "We 
take no notice of the doctrine of a first and a second resur- 
rection, which some commentators think they find intimated 



MATTHEW XXV. 31-46. 437 

here. And we should gladly avoid all other disputed 
doctrines involved in the criticism, were it not for the disas- 
trous hold which some of them have taken on the popular 

mind. 



The General Resurrection and Day of Judgment. 

Does Jesus here, 31-46, teach that some specific day, 
separate from that of each man's death, is to be set apart for 
the general and simultaneous resurrection and judgment of 
all the tribes and generations of men ? His language does 
not, we think, require any such interpretation. In the 
previous parables he has been singling out individual cases 
of sudden judgment. But lest they should leave upon the 
mind an idea of a partial and imperfect retribution, which 
some men might escape, he here in one awful picture repre- 
sents all men of all nations and times as standing before 
him to undergo the searching ordeal which in the previous 
parables has been applied to individual souls. Nothing is 
said or intimated in regard to a resurrection of the body, or 
the simultaneous resurrection of the whole race. The 
meaning of the language is : Not one, or a few, like those 
already specified, shall meet the Son of man and be judged 
by him at his coming, but all the nations and generations of 
men shall be gathered before him in his glory, to receive 
from him — in the words which come from him as the 
great essential law of God's kingdom — the sentence of joy 
or woe which awaits them as they enter on their eternal 
state of being. 

It will not do to bind down to a literal exactness language 
like this, intensified with emotion and abounding in the 
sublimest figures of speech. BuUeven when construed in 
its stricter sense, the language here does not imply what is 
usually understood by the day of judgment. Suppose that 
every soul, when its earthly course is ended and its earthly 
garments laid aside, goes directly into the presence of Christ 

37* 



438 MATTHEW XXV. 31-46. 

and his angels, to be judged according to the principles of 
life or death which it has cherished here, and which are 
there to work out their solemn retributions. In this individ- 
ual manifestation, or coming of Christ to each individual 
soul, is it not strictly true that " all the nations shall be 
gathered before him " ? As, in a vast military review, the 
armies of an empire pass, company by company, day after 
day, before the monarch, each battalion as it comes from its 
neighboring barracks or distant campaign, till all at length 
have been gathered before him, so in this grander procession 
and review of human beings, moment by moment, hour by 
hour, year after year, and generation after generation, each 
individual soul by itself, in the solemn depths of its own 
consciousness, and yet all in one ceaseless succession of 
companies, pass on, till at last all the nations shall be 
gathered before him, and separated one from another, as a 
shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. 

When we say, the hour will come when all who are on 
the earth must die, we do not mean that all shall die at the 
same hour. So when it is said, " We must all stand before 
the judgment-seat of Christ," or, " When the Son of man 

shall come in his glory, all the nations shall be 

gathered before him," it is not implied that we shall all 
stand before him, or be gathered before him at one and the 
same moment. As the coming of the Son of man in mercy 
now to each soul is whenever that soul is ready to receive 
him, so the coming of Christ in judgment to each one 
of us is when we go from this to the next stage of our 
existence. 



MATTHEW XXV. 



439 



NOTES. 

Thex shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten vir- 
gins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bride- 

2 groom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 

3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with 

4 them. But the wise took oil in then' vessels with their lamps. 

5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 

6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bride- 

7 groom cometh ; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins 
s arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the 
9 wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. But 

the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough 
for us and you ; but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for 

10 yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom 
came, and they that were ready went in with him to the mar- 

n riage ; and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other 

12 virgins, saving, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered 

13 and said, Yerily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch, 
therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein 

u the Son of man cometh. For the kingdom of heaven is as a 



6. And at midnight] An Ar- 
menian wedding is thus described 
by a traveller quoted in Livermore's 
Commentary. " The large number 
of young females who were present 
naturally reminded me of the wise 
and foolish virgins in our Saviour's 
parable. These being friends of the 
Dride, the virgins, her companions, 
(Ps. xlv. 14,) had come to meet the 
bridegroom. It is usual for the 
bridegroom to come at midnight; 
so that literally at midnight the cry 
is made, Behold, the bridegroom com- 
eth ; go ye out to meet him. But on 
this occasion the bridegroom tarried; 
it was two o'clock before he ar- 
rived." 8. are gone out] 
rather, are going out. 10. 
And the door was shut] The 
following account of a Hindoo wed- 
ding by Mr. Ward is also copied 
from Mr. Livermore. " After wait- 
ing two or three hours, at length, 
near midnight, it was announced, 



as if in the very words of Scrip- 
ture, Behold, the bridegroom com- 
eth ; go ye out to meet him ! All 
the persons employed now lighted 
their lamps, and ran with them in 
their hands to fill up their stations 
in the procession; some of them 
had lost their lights and were un- 
prepared ; but it was then too late to 
seek them, and the cavalcade moved 
forward to the house of the bride. 
The bridegroom was carried in the 
arms of a friend, and placed on a 
superb seat in the midst of the 
company, where he sat a short 
time, and then went into the house, 
the door of which was immediately 
shut and guarded by Sepoys. I 
and others expostulated with the 
door-keepers, but in vain." 

14. the kingdom of heav- 
en] These words are inserted by 
our translators without reason. Je- 
sus has been speaking all along of 
the coming of the Son of man, and 



440 



MATTHEW XXV. 



man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, 
and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five 15 
talents, to another two, and to another one ; to every man ac- 
cording to his several ability ; and straightway took his jour- 
ney. Then he that had received the five talents went and 16 
traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And 17 
likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. 
But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, is 
and hid his lord's money. After a long time, the lord of those 19 
servants cometh and reckoneth with them. And so he that had 20 
received five talents came and brought other five talents, say-, 
ing, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents ; behold, I 
have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto 21 
him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant ; thou hast 
been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over 
many things ; enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also 22 
that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou de- 
liveredst unto me two talents ; behold, I have gained two other 
^talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, 23 
good and faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few 
things, I will make thee ruler over many things ; enter thou 
into the joy of thy lord. Then he which had received the one 24 
talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an 
hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering 
where thou hast not strawed ; and I was afraid, and went and 25 
hid thy talent in the earth : lo, there thou hast that is thine. 



that fact is the one still to be illus- the end of life, but all along, that 
trated. " Watch, therefore, because this reckoning is made, and its 
ye know not the day nor the hour : terms enforced, — the diligent and 
for it is as a man travelling into a faithful furnished with larger op- 
far country," &c. 15. portunities, the sluggish and un- 
to every man according' to his faithful deprived of what they once 
several ability] = not oppressing had. But in the final summing up, 
the servant of small powers with we shall be called to account only 
opportunities and responsibilities for the use of what we have had. 
beyond his strength. And is it not The much or little, if only faithfully 
so "with us all? We may complain used, will be all the same to us 
of the narrow sphere, the small then. 24. I knew thee 
opportunities, granted to us; but if that thou art an hard man] 
we have the ability to use greater, Here the real character of the 
shall we not find them ? Our fidel- slothful servant comes out. And 
ity and skill in the use of what we how true is the picture ! They who 
have to-day will prepare us for neglect the means of success, who 
greater opportunities, and them for give way to indolence and refuse 
us, to-morrow. It is not merely at to make the required exertions, are 



MATTHEW XXV. 



441 



26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and sloth- 
ful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and 

27 gather where I have not strawed ; thou oughtest therefore to 
have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming 

28 I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore 
the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. 

29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have 
abundance ; but from him that hath not shall be taken away 

30 even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable ser- 
vant into outer darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing 
of teeth. 

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the 
holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his 

32 glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations ; and he 
shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth 

33 his sheep from the goats ; and lie shall set the sheep on his 

34 right hand, but the goats on the left, Then shall the King say 
unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 

35 the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; 
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye 

36 took me in ; naked, and ye clothed me ; I was sick, and ye 

37 visited me ; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then 



the ones who complain most of the 
hardness of their lot and of the con- 
duct of God towards them. 

26. thou knewest that I 
reap where I sowed not] The 
slothful servant is answered on his 
own ground. This is made a little 
more explicit in Luke xix. 22: 
" Out of thine own mouth will I 
judge thee.'" 29. unto 

every one that hath shall be 
given] A re.tt law of our nature, 
filling out as its complement the 
other law announced (v. 3, 6 ; 
Luke vi. 20, 21), that in proportion 
as we feel our want, will be the sup- 
ply that is granted. To him that 
hath the disposition and the ability 
to use will be given, that he may 
have the more abundantly; and at 
the same time they who feel their 
wants, and in lowliness of spirit are 
hungering and thirsting after right- 
eousness, will be filled, and theirs 



will be the kingdom of heaven. 

but from him that hath 
not] He had had it; but yet, as 
he had made no use of it, it was as 
if he had it not. 30. into 

outer darkness] the outer dark- 
ness. A reference again to the 
feast and joy within, the darkness 
and sorrow without. 33. 

Come, ye blessed of my Fa- 
ther, inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you] But not, 41, 
ye cursed of my Father ; the curse 
they had brought upon themselves. 
Neither is it, 41, depart into eter- 
nal fire prepared for you, but pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels, 
i. e. prepared, in the very nature of 
things, for what is evil as its natural 
fruit. Not a punishment purposely 
and arbitrarily prepared by God, 
but growing as a necessary conse- 
quence out of the life which they 
had lived, and the characters they 



442 



MATTHEW XXV. 



shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord when saw we 
thee an hungered, and fed thee ? or thirsty, and gave thee 
drink ? when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in ? or 38 
naked, and clothed thee ? or when saw we thee sick, or in 39 
prison, and came unto thee ? And the King shall answer and 40 
say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have 
done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have . 
done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left 41 
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels. For I was an hungered, 42 
and ye gave me no meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no 
drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in ; naked, and 43 
ye clothed me not ; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we 44 
thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, 
or in prison, and did not minister unto thee ? Then shall he 45 



had formed. 41. for the 

devil and his angels] We have 

already given quite as much space 
to the subject of demonology as its 
importance demands, and would re- 
fer the reader interested in such 
things to the remarks which may 
be found in chapters iv., viii., and 
xiii. The expression here may de- 
note a personal being and his agents, 
or it may be used only as a personi- 
fication of evil, — sin, and those who 
are employed as its messengers to 
disseminate it. Go ye into the sor- 
rows which have been prepared — 
.not for you — but for sin and its 
agents, as its natural and necessary 
results. In partaking of sin you 
■must partake also of the bitter 
fruits which it bears. The neces- 
sary and awful connection between 
sin and sorrow, so that those who 
engage in the former must also be 
involved in the latter, unless they 
repent and leave their wickedness 
behind, is the terrible fact which is 
here announced as a part of the 
great system of things. The doc- 
trine or demons, or of a personal 
devil, is not found in the old He- 
brew Scriptures; though the word 
Satan, an adversary or enemy, is 
sometimes used, as in Numbers 



xxii. 22; 1 Sam. xxix. 4; 1 Kings 
xi. 14. In 1 Chron. xxi. 1 and 
Zech. iii. 1, 2, is the first appear- 
ance in the Old Testament of Satan 
as the evil one, and both these writ- 
ings belong probably to a period 
not antecedent to the Babylonian 
captivity. During the period of 
more than five centuries which in- 
tervened between that captivity and 
the birth of Christ, the minds of the 
Jews became imbued with the idea 
of demons and a prince of demons, 
such as we find in the New Testa- 
ment. Traces of these notions may 
be found in some of the apocry- 
phal writings, but the fullest devel- 
opment of the doctrine is seen in the 
Apocalypse of JRnoch, a work which 
belonged to that period, which was 
known and quoted from by some 
of the New Testament writers 
(2 Peter, and Jude 14), but which 
was unknown in the Christian 
Church for nearly a thousand 
years. In 1773 Bruce the trav- 
eller brought three copies of it 
from Abyssinia, and in 1821 a 
translation of it into English was 
made bv Richard Laurence, after- 
wards Archbishop of Cashel. See 
Christian Examiner for May, 1859, 
Art. The History and Doctrine of 



MATTHEW XXY. 



U3 



answer them, saving, Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye 
46 did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And 
these shall go away into everlasting punishment ; but the 
righteous into life eternal. 



are when we pass from this to the 
next stage of our existence. As 



the Devil. 46. And 

these shall go away into 
everlasting punishment; hut 
the righteous into liie eter- 
nal] Everlasting and eternal, in 
this verse and verse 41, are in 
Greek the same word alcoviov (aio- 
nion). For its meaning, see note, 
xii. 82. It relates to the condition, 
for good or for evil, in which we 

en we p? 

tage of i 
our earthly or mortal life relates to 
our external mode of being here, so 
our eternal life or eternal punish- 
ment relates to the spiritual quali- 
ties which, beginning here, shall 
abide with us hereafter, and bear 
in us the fruits of righteousness or 
sin, which belong to our condition 
there, i. e. to our eternal (aionion) 
condition. It relates rather to the 
nature than the duration of the con- 
dition in which Ave may be placed. 
The eternal life here begun shall 
enfold the righteous in the splen- 
dors of its bliss, and the eternal 
death or punishment shall envelop 
the ungodly in its ghastly shadows 
of sin and shame. " The same 
word, alowiov, eternal, is applied 
to the punishment of the bad and the 
happiness of the good, and it refers 
not at all to duration in months and 
years. It means, rather, those op- 
posite states of mind from which 
the idea of time and all its contin- 



gencies has been completely elimi- 
nated; one lifted up into the eter- 
nal glories, the other depressed into 
the shadows of eternal gloom. It is 
a happiness or disorder, transfused 
not from this world, but from anoth- 
er, and which, therefore, survives 
temporal duration and mortal disso- 
lution, and exists in sharper con- 
trasts than ever, after the fashions 
of this world have passed away." 
Foregleams of Immortality, pp. 129, 
130. Bengel in his note on this pas- 
sage says, " Eternal signifies that 
which reaches and passes the limits 
of earthly time.''' 1 So in his note on 
Rom. xvi. 25, " since the world began, 
Xpovois alaiviois, [during the eter- 
nal ages,] from the time Avhen not 
only men, but even angels, were 
created. The times are denoted, 
which with their first commence- 
ment as it were touch upon the 
previous eternity, and are, so to 
speak, mixed with it; not eternity 
itself, of Avhich times are only the 
streams; for the phrase, Before eter- 
nal ages (English version, Before 
the world began) is used at 2 Tim. 1, 
9; Ps. Ixxvii. 5 (lxxvi. 6.)" 

punishment] KoXaais, pun- 
ishment, not Tijxwpia, vengeance; 
" for punishment is inflicted for the 
sake of him who suffers ; vengeance, 
for the satisfaction of him who in- 
flicts it." Bengel. 



444 MATTHEW XXVI. 1-17. 



CHAPTER XXYI. 

1-17. The Supper at Bethany. — Judas. 

1-2. It was now (see introduction to chap, xxi.) late on 
Tuesday evening, which, according to the Jewish method ot 
reckoning, was the beginning of Wednesday. The expres- 
sion " after two days is the Passover " would place that 
event on Thursday. 3-5. Here the scene changes, and the 
writer recurs to deliberations previously held by the chief 
priests and elders in regard to the best way of getting Jesus 
into their hands by subtlety or deceit, and putting him to 
death. They had concluded that it would not be expedient 
to do this during the festival. 6-13. The writer then, 
without explicitly stating his object, proceeds to show how 
their purpose came to be altered by the proposal of Judas to 
put Jesus into their hands. And in order to give what 
stood in his own mind as the immediate occasion of the 
traitor's proposal, he goes back four days (John xii. 1), and 
gives an account of a supper at Bethany, where an event 
had occurred which, with the comment of Jesus upon it, 
exasperated Judas, and hastened him on in his work of 
treachery. The passage is worthy of remark, as showing 
how, in the narrative of an unpractised writer like Matthew, 
the true order of events is departed from without notice being 
given, and how the object which is foremost in the mind of 
the writer may be left so obscurely indicated by his words, 
that we can discover what it is only by comparing his narra- 
tive with that which has come to us from another source. 
No mention is made of Judas in the account of the supper 
by Matthew, but at the close of the account he says, 14-16, 
" Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the 



MATTHEW XXVI. 17-29. 445 

chief priests," as if his going were in some way dependent 
on what had just been described. John, on the other hand, 
in his more precise and circumstantial detail of events (xii. 
1-8), singles out Judas as the one most prominent in com- 
plaining of the waste. Judas, therefore, must have been the 
one who was most excited by the indignation which Matthew 
mentions, and who would feel most keenly the rebuke implied 
in the language of Jesus. Indignant, therefore, and exas- 
perated, he sought an interview with the chief priests. The 
same avaricious spirit which had caused his indignation at 
the supper manifests itself in the offer which he made to the 
priests. " This might have been sold for two hundred 
pence," were his words when he saw the precious ointment 
poured upon the head and feet of Jesus ; and now his ques- 
tion is, " What will you give me if I will give him up to 
you ? " There is no formal connection between these two 
expressions in Matthew. He does not even tell us that the 
questions were both put by the same man. It is only by the 
help of John's Gospel that we discover this, and by his aid 
we see, not only how perfectly the two narratives, apparently 
different, harmonize with each other, but how important in 
its place the apparently irrelevant account of the supper at 
Bethany is in the Gospel before us. Where a man's mind 
is full of a subject, and he sees as an actual witness the 
relation of all its parts to one another, he is very apt to 
state facts as they lie in his mind in their true relation to one 
another, but without the explanatory clauses which a reader 
not conversant with the facts needs in order to understand 
their connection, and which a writer not personally familiar 
with the facts would hardly fail to put in. 

17-29. The Last Supper. 

17-19. The writer now returns to Jesus. It was the 
first day of unleavened bread when the disciples asked Jesus 
where they should prepare the Passover. There is nothing 

38 



446 MATTHEW XXVI. 17-29. 

miraculous implied in the narrative. All the houses in 
Jerusalem were open at that time for guests. Jesus may 
previously have spoken to some one in the city who was 
friendly to him, and engaged a chamber in his house. And 
now he tells two of his disciples (Mark xiv. 13), viz. Peter 
and John (Luke xxii. 8), go to such a one, probably men- 
tioning his name, and say to him, " The teacher " — the title 
by which Jesus was best known to his followers — " saith, 
My time is near for me to keep the Passover with my disci- 
ples at thy house." Jesus probably sent Peter and John 
privately, so that the other disciples did not know the place 
until they had assembled there to eat the Passover. A rea- 
son for this may have been, that Judas might not know be- 
forehand whither to bring those to whom he intended to 
betray him, and that Jesus might have a few last hours 
with his disciples entirely undisturbed. 

21-29. Nothing could be more simple or more touchingly 
beautiful than the account which the Evangelists have given 
of the Last Supper. The chamber had been prepared. 
Jesus and his twelve disciples were there, reclining at the 
table. While they were eating, Jesus was troubled in spirit, 
and said, " Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall 
betray me." And they* were exceeding sorrowful, and 
looked at one another, not knowing who it might be. But 
each one, being more ready to suspect himself than either of 
his associates, began separately and perhaps privately to 
ask, " Lord, is it I ? " And he replied, but in such a way 
that Judas could not hear him, " He that dippeth his hand 
with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of 
man goeth, as it is written of him ; but woe to that man by 
whom the Son of man is betrayed ! It had been good for 
that man if he had not been born." Judas, recovering 
somewhat from the confusion occasioned by the announce- 
ment of Jesus that one of them should betray him, and 
supposing that he might be suspected by his associates unless 
he should put the question which they had put, now the last 



MATTHEW XXYI. 17-29. 447 

of them all, asked, » Rabbi, is it I ? " His guilty heart 
caused his tongue to stumble in its words, and instead of the 
hearty, loving reverence implied in the address, Lord, is it 
I ? his treacherous purpose half revealed itself in the term 
which he used, — Rabbi, which is not, like Rabboni, expres- 
sive of the highest honor and reverence. The very word 
that Judas uttered so fixed itself in the minds of the disciples, 
that in Matthew, though his Gospel comes to us in another 
language, the Hebrew word is retained. " Rabbi," he asked, 
- is it I ? " Jesus answered, " Thou hast said," i. e. It is 
even as thou hast said. Soon after this, when the others 
had received from Jesus the sign who it was that should 
betray him, Judas (John xiii. 30, 31) probably withdrew, 
and Jesus, relieved from the pressure caused by his presence, 
exclaimed, " Xow is the Son of man glorified." 

Then followed the institution of the Lord's Supper. The 
Passover had been eaten. But while they were yet at the 
table, Jesus took bread, and having blessed and broken it, 
he gave it to his disciples, saying, " Take, eat, this is my 
body, given [Luke xxii. 19] for you; this do in remem- 
brance of me." " It was a round cake of unleavened 
bread which the Lord broke and divided ; signifying there- 
by both the breaking of his body on the cro-s, and the par- 
ticipation in the benefits of his death by all his." Alford. 
What could be the meaning of the clause, this do in remem- 
brance of me. unless it was intended that the Supper should 
be observed as a lasting memorial of himself? The bread 
thus broken is to us an emblem of the broken body of 
Christ, and his body expresses to us the truth, — the bread 
from heaven which he came to impart to man, — the words 
of his which are spirit and life (John vi. 63), loaded down 
as they aie with the divine fulness of meaning and of 
redemptive power which is given to them by his whole 
"manifestation in the flesh." In this sense, our spiritual 
being is upheld "by the inward and spiritual process of 
feeding upon him by faith : of making that body our own, 



448 MATTHEW XXVI. 17-29. 

causing it to pass into and nourish our souls, even as the 
substance of the bread passes into and nourishes our bodies. 
Of this feeding upon Christ in the spirit by faith is the 
sacramental bread the symbol to us." " The commemoration 
is of him, in so far as he has come down into time, and 
enacted the great acts of redemption on this our world, — 
and shown himself to us as living and speaking man, an 
object of our personal love and affectionate remembrance; — 
but the other and higher parts of the sacrament have regard 
to the results of these same acts of redemption, as they are 
eternized in the counsels of the Father." Alford. 

And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to 
them, saying, '* Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood of 
the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission 
of sins." As the bread is an emblem of the body of Christ, 
and that an emblem of the divine truth which came through 
him into the world to feed and sustain the souls of men, so 
is the wine an emblem of his blood shed for many for the 
remission of sins, and his blood thus shed for sinful men is 
an emblem of the divine love manifested in him for the 
redemption of the world. As in partaking of the wine we 
rise through the symbol into that which it symbolizes, we 
receive into our souls the love of Christ, and are thus made 
partakers of his spirit. This it is in its highest spiritual 
sense to partake of the blood of Christ. The cup of blessing 
thus received in faith, " is it not the communion of the blood 
of Christ ? " " Let us recur to the paschal rite. The lamb 
being killed, the blood (Ex. xxiv. 8) is sprinkled on the 
door-posts, and is a sign to the destroying angel to spare the 
house. The blood of the covenant is the blood of the lamb. 
So also in the new covenant. The blood of the Lamb of 
God, slain for us, being not only sprinkled on, but actually 
partaken spiritually and assimilated by the faithful soul, is 
the blood of the new covenant, and the sacramental cup is, 
signifies, sets forth, this covenant in his blood, i. e. consist- 
ing in a participation in his blood." Alford. 



MATTHEW XXVI. 31-35. 449 

29. "But I say unto you, that I shall not drink henceforth 
of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new 
with you in my Father's kingdom." Here the fruit of the 
vine (see note) is used in its higher and spiritual: signification. 
" The Lord's Supper points not only to the past, but to the 
future also. It has not only a commemorative, but also a 
prophetic meaning. In it we have not only to show forth 
the Lord's death till he come, but we have also to think of 
the time when he shall come to celebrate his holy supper 
with his own, new, in his kingdom of glory. Every cele- 
bration of the Lord's Supper is a foretaste and prophetic 
anticipation of the great Marriage Supper which is pre- 
pared for the Church at the second appearing of Christ." 
Thiersch. 



31-35. Warning Peter. 

31 — 35. Probably the discourses and prayer recorded by 
John (xiv. -xvii.) were spoken after the paschal psalm or 
hymn, and before they left the city. They were certainly 
spoken (John xviii. 1) before the party had crossed the 
Kedron. From Luke xxii. 31-34, and John xiii. 36-38, 
it would seem as if some warning, 31, had been previously 
given, perhaps more than once, and with a more direct and 
exclusive application to Peter. It may be that they are 
only different accounts of the same conversation, each 
writer retaining or omitting the parts which made the 
strongest impression on his mind, and using the words as 
they remained in his memory. The different topics, how- 
ever, which are introduced, especially in Luke as compared 
with Matthew and Mark, seem to us to indicate different 
occasions. And if Peter had been thus warned once or 
twice before, it will account for the eagerness with which he 
here repels from himself, 33, the charge which is made, 31, 
equally against all the eleven. 

38* co 



450 MATTHEW XXVI. 36-46. 



36 - 46. — The Agony of Gethsemane. 

The external facts here narrated are easily understood. 
After the supper, late in the evening, Jesus with the eleven 
went out of Jerusalem across the brook Kedron to Gethsem- 
ane, a place which lay a little way up on the Mount 
of Olives, in sight of the eastern wall of Jerusalem. It is 
supposed that there may have been a house there, in which 
the eight disciples remained (for the night was cold), while 
Jesus, with Peter and James and John, went to a more 
retired part of the grounds. There, as the "agony," the 
struggle, as St. Luke calls it, came upon him, he said to 
them, " My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death ; 
tarry ye here and watch with me." He yearned for their 
sympathy. He loved to have them near, though in the 
depth of his agony he wished also to be apart from them. 
He went, therefore, about a stone's throw from them (Luke 
xxii. 41), and, kneeling, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, 
" my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ! 
nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." After remain- 
ing thus for a season, he came back to the three disciples, 
and finding them asleep, he said, " What ! could ye not 
watch with me one hour ? Watch and pray, that ye enter 
not into temptation : the spirit indeed is willing, but the 
flesh is weak." He went away a second time, and prayed, 
saying, " O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from 
me, except I drink it, thy will be done." The altered form 
of the prayer shows that the sharpness of the struggle was 
over. He came to his disciples again, and finding them 
asleep, he went away the third time, and prayed, using the 
same words. Several hours may thus have been passed by 
him in Gethsemane. When he returned the third time to 
his disciples, he found them asleep. Grief (Luke xxii. 
45) had overcome them. " Sleep on now, and take your 
rest," he said. A short interval of time now probably 



MATTEHAV XXYI. 36-46. 451 

elapsed, while the disciples continued sleeping, "when Jesus 
saw. as he might from that spot in the moonlight, Judas, and 
the crowd who were with him, coming through one of the 
eastern gates of the city. Then he roused his disciples, and 
said, " Behold, the hour is near, and the Son of man is "be- 
trayed into the hands of sinners. Eise, let us go : behold, he 
is near who doth betray me." 

The narrative here is a plain one. It is a condensed 
statement of the prominent facts, which probably took up 
several hours, viz. from nine or ten in the evening till 
somewhere from twelve to two in the morning. It is ob- 
jected that the disciples, being asleep, could not have heard 
what Jesus said in his prayer. But they were awake each 
time when he left them, and may each time have heard the 
first piercing words of his prayer, and then have fallen 
asleep while he still lay upon his face in agony. The dis- 
tance, a stone's throw, would not prevent their hearing the 
words which were forced from him in his anguish. 

But how shall we account for the intensity of his suffer- 
ings ? Luther supposes that the physical pangs, and conse- 
quently the dread of death, were greatly aggravated in his 
case. " We men," he says, " conceived and born in sin, 
have an impure, hard flesh, which does not soon feel. The 
fresher and sounder the man is, the finer the skin, and the 
purer the blood, so much the more does he feel, and is sus- 
ceptible of what befalls him. Now, since Christ's body was 
pure and sinless, whilst ours is impure, we therefore 
scarcely feel the terrors of death in one fifth of the degree 
in which Christ felt them. Since he was to be the greatest 
martyr, he therefore had to suffer death's extremest terrors." 
This may be true of the susceptibility to merely physical 
suffering. The exquisite physical organization of a perfect 
man may have the most acute sensibility to pain, as well as to 
enjoyment. But beyond its physical sufferings, we cannot 
conceive of death as having any terrors for Jesus. TVe 
have seen how he looked through it, and regarded it only as 



452 MATTHEW XXVI. 36-46. 

a sleep, an incident or change in the mode of living, — an 
entrance, through momentary pangs perhaps, into the heav- 
enly and immortal life. The dread of death, therefore, 
could not of itself have been that which so weighed down 
and oppressed his soul in Gethsemane. 

How, then, can we account for the agony which the Evan- 
gelists have described in language so remarkable ? First, 
there may have been the exquisitely sensitive physical or- 
ganization mentioned by Luther. All its natural suscepti- 
bilities would be increased, and its powers of endurance 
weakened, by the exciting and exhausting scenes through 
which he had been passing. After the excitement of some 
extraordinary effort is gone by, in the physical and mental 
prostration that succeeds, when the nerves are as it were 
unsheathed and laid open to every painful sensation, the 
soul itself is more than at any other time exposed to depress- 
ing and disheartening thoughts. Painful and discouraging 
views throng before it, and shut out the light which might 
come from other quarters. It was so with Jesus at Geth- 
semane. In the extreme physical exhaustion and the con- 
sequent nervous sensibility and depression of those hours of 
agony, his mind was in a state to look only on the dark side 
of his mission. Not the glorious line of apostles, martyrs, 
saints, the ransomed of the Lord, an innumerable com- 
pany who shall owe their salvation to him, rose in vision 
before him ; but the unthankfulness and hatred of those for 
whom he was about to die, the scorn and bitterness with 
which they would reject his offers, the cruelties to be en- 
dured by his followers, the long centuries through which 
they would be struggling with the world and its powers of 
evil. The treachery, desertion, and denial which he was to 
experience among his chosen friends, the cross, the bodily 
anguish, the howls of anger and derision with which his 
sufferings would be mocked and insulted by those for whom 
his keenest agonies were borne, the overshadowing dark- 
ness, the ensuing ages of sin and misery, which might be 



MATTHEW XXVI. 36 - 46. 453 

removed if men only would come to him, — all these lay 
with their intolerable weight upon his soul, making it ex- 
ceeding sorrowful, even unto death. And this intolerable 
anguish, this bitterness and darkness, worse than of death, 
which was then pressing upon him and shutting out all 
light and hope, this was the cup which he could not think of 
without agony, and concerning which he prayed that, if it 
were possible, it might pass from him. 

How strong his yearning for human sympathy was is in- 
dicated by his touching appeal to his disciples, ver. 38, 
"My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; stay here 
and watch with me?' And how keenly he felt the want of 
sympathy is shown by the exclamation when he returned 
and found them sleeping : "Were ye so entirely unable to 
watch with me for a single hour ! " They who have gone 
through some terrible grief know how, for the time, all their 
painful susceptibilities were aggravated and inflamed, so 
that every little act of apparent neglect or thoughtlessness 
on the part of their friends was like vitriol poured into a 
deep and angry wound. Now if we consider that the sensi- 
bilities and sympathetic emotions of our Saviour, in delicacy, 
intensity, and extent, went as far as his other faculties be- 
yond all that men have ever known, and that not only the 
unworthiness of those who were near, but the sins and cru- 
elties, the infidelity and indifference of coming generations, 
were brought before his prophetic vision, to smite upon the 
soul that was pouring itself out in agony for a deliverance 
which they would not accept, we may have some inadequate 
idea of the causes of the unutterable anguish which op- 
pressed and overpowered him beneath the shadows of Geth- 
semane. A mother may be made to suffer an agony worse 
than death, through her love and sympathy for an unworthy 
child. JKvery sin of his, every act of ingratitude, every new 
sign of increasing depravity in him, smites on her heart; 
and the more intense her love and sympathy for him, the 
more terrible the suffering which it is in his power to inflict. 



454 MATTHEW XXVI. 36-46. 

What she feels for her child, Christ felt still more intensely 
for each one of the thousands who, in rejecting him, were 
sinning against God and their own souls. What she with 
limited powers endures for one, he, with his finer sensibilities, 
his deeper love, his enlarged sympathies and comprehensive 
insight, may have suffered an hundred-fold from every one of 
those whose salvation he was longing and struggling to se- 

O O DO O 

cure. As she in the intensity of her love and sympathy 
bears in her own breast the sins and sorrows of her ruined 
child, so he in Gethsemane, and on the cross, bore in his 
own body the sins and sorrows of a lost world. And thus 
the words of the prophet were fulfilled in him : " He hath 
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and we esteemed 
him stricken from above, smitten of God, and afflicted. But 
he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for 
our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him ; 
and with his stripes are we healed. All we like sheep have 
gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ; 
and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isa. 
liii. 4-6.) When, through his love and sympathy for man, 
this dreadful weight of sin and pain was laid upon him, and 
only the dark and awful side of his ministry to a sinful 
world was open to him, for a little while he sunk beneath 
the burden, and in agony of soul cried out, " Father," — 
not, my Father, — " if it be possible, let this cup pass from 
me." When he prayed again, the intensity of the struggle 
had abated : " O my Father, if this cup may not pass away 
from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." A third time 
he prayed : it was in the same words ; the darkness had 
gone ; he " was heard in that he feared." (Heb. v. 7.) He 
had prayed to be delivered from the intolerable anguish 
that overpowered him, and while he prayed it was removed. 
In submitting himself to drink the cup, it had passed from 
him. And how often, when in an agony of prayer we strive 
to bring ourselves into the fitting frame to endure, by this 
very act of submission the cup is emptied of its bitterness, 



MATTHEW XXYI. 36-46. 455 

and the anguish which had seemed to us so dreadful in its 
approach has already passed away ! 

The intensity of our Saviour's sufferings in consequence 
of the greatness of his endowments is a subject which can- 
not be comprehended by us in all its length and breadth, 
and depth and height, any more than we can comprehend 
the full extent of his thought or emotion in any other direc- 
tion. But what we learn here is in harmony with all that 
we know of him. Every part of his nature is on the same 
grand scale. The miracles which he wrought no more de- 
cisively indicate the possession of powers over material 
nature beyond what other men possess, than the truths 
which his words open to us, and the life which he lived, 
show the possession of powers of thought, spiritual per- 
ceptions, and moral energies beyond what has ever been 
revealed to us in the history of man. And here we find 
him exhibiting a sensibility to suffering on the same vast 
scale ; and the agony of Gethsemane, in its mysterious and 
terrible severity, has awed and subdued the world, as a 
deeper and more affecting expression of the same greatness 
which reveals itself in his other acts and words. 

But is there not a deeper meaning than this in his suffer- 
ings ? May not these sufferings have been aggravated by 
the assaults of evil spirits ? As, in the Transfiguration, the 
splendors which shone around him were from a world be- 
yond the reach of our mortal senses, so may it not be now, 
in his humiliation and agony, that the cause of his severest 
agony lay beyond the limits of this mortal life ? 

Since the consequences of his victory over death and 
sin reach on into unseen worlds, and have their fullest con- 
summation there, may it not be that the conflict, as, e. g., 
in the wilderness and Gethsemane, may have been aggra- 
vated by the action of invisible and spiritual agencies? 
Apprehending the influence of his victorious death in over- 
throwing and subduing their kingdom, may they not have 
rallied their forces for a last terrible conflict with him ? We 



456 MATTHEW XXVI. 36-46. 

know so little in regard to the whole realm of unseen spirit- 
ual agencies, especially on the side of what is evil, that it 
becomes us to approach the subject with diffidence. So far 
as relates to the passage before us, there is no expression 
used by Jesus which implies the presence of any such influ- 
ence. What we have said of his sensibility to suffering, 
through the exquisite texture of his physical and emotional or- 
ganization, and his unbounded love and sympathy for man, 
may be sufficient to account for all his sufferings there and 
on the cross. Still there may have been these other agen- 
cies. His words immediately after, " This is your hour, and 
the power of darkness," (Luke xxii. 53,) will bear, and nat- 
urally suggest, such a construction. " His struggle," says 
Olshausen, " was an invisible agony of the soul ; .... a con- 
test against the power of darkness ; for as in the beginning 
of his ministry the Saviour was tempted by the enemy 
through the medium of desire, so now at its end was he as- 
sailed through the medium of fear ." This is the view taken 
by Mr. Parsons in his fine essay on " The Ministry of Sor- 
row." " All the hells," he says, " were admitted to assault, 

to tempt, that humanity t . All evil influences attacked 

him. There were no tendencies to sin in human nature 
which they who had lived in the indulgence of those sins, 
and had so gone clown into darkness, and then and there 
become the embodiment of those sins, did not find in the 
humanity he assumed, and endeavor to rouse into activity. 

They were all resisted, all conquered No spot or 

stain from hell could cleave to him. And all the enemies 
of good yielded to his perfect goodness, and found them- 
selves, all and forever, defeated and subdued He re- 
duced them to order, and subjected them forever to the force 
of those laws which permit them to excite in man so much 
only of their own evils as shall leave man in full and per- 
fect ability to resist them and reject what they would give 
to him." This, we suppose, is Swedenborg's view of the 
subject, and it is substantially the same as that taken by 



MATTHEW XXVI. 36 - 46. 457 

Trench in his Notes on the Demoniacs in the country of 
the Gadarenes. " That whole period," he says, " was the 

hour and power of darkness We cannot doubt that 

the might of hell has been greatly broken by the coming of 
the Son of God in the flesh ; and with this the grosser mani- 
festations of his power." 

"We leave this whole branch of the subject, in connection 
with what we have already said of evil spirits, as lying 
in a region which can be only darkly and imperfectly 
explained or explored by us. 

There is another view of the cause of our Saviour's 
sufferings which has entered deeply into the theology of 
Christendom. It is expressed by Olshausen in its mildest 
form, when he says that Jesus in Gethsemane, " as repre- 
sentative of mankind, sustains the wrath of God." We 
cannot accept this view of the subject, — 1. Because it is in- 
consistent with all the moral instructions of Jesus, and gives 
a shock to all the moral sensibilities and convictions which 
he came into the world to revive and sustain. We must 
throw aside the Sermon on the Mount, the Parable of the 
Prodigal Son, and everything else in the Gospels which 
relates to our duties and the character of God, before we 
can accept such a doctrine. 2. We cannot accept it, because 
we find nothing in the Scriptures to countenance it. In the 
different accounts of the agony of Gethsemane there is no 
indication of such a relation between God and his Son. 
Nor is the doctrine to be found in the Old Testament. 
Allowing the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah to refer, as we think 
it does, at least in its secondary sense, to the Messiah, the 
interpretation that we have given above seems to us much 
more in accordance with its language and its spirit than the 
horrible idea that the sinless One was under the wrath and 
curse of God. " We must not for a moment," says Alford, 
" think of the Father's wrath abiding on him as the cause 
of his sufferings. Here is no fear of wrath, but, in the depth 
of his human anguish, the very tenderness of filial love." 



458 MATTHEW XXVI. 47-56. 

For a fuller view of this subject, see Introduction to " The- 
ological Essays," edited by Dr. Noyes, and the Notes at the 
close of that volume. 

47-56. — The Apprehension of Jesus. 

The different narratives of this event are marked by the 
differences which we should expect from independent wit- 
nesses of actions which most of them took place in the 
night, which must have been hurried and confused, and 
which could not have been seen entire in all their relations 
by any one of those wh© were present. We must call to 
mind the disciples just waking out of their sleep at Geth- 
semane, the overshadowing trees, the glimmering of the 
moonlight through them, the crowd with weapons and 
staves or clubs, with lanterns and torches, hastening 
eagerly towards them, hardly knowing what to expect, and 
without the thorough understanding and concert among 
themselves that would be found if they had been only a 
military detachment or band. The great multitude which 
Matthew speaks of were, — 1st, a detachment of Roman 
soldiers (tj (rneipa, a hand, the word used to express a cohort, 
John xviii. 3, 12); 2d, the officers or captains of the temple, 
who were Jews (Luke xxii. 52) ; 3d, servants and others 
deputed by the priests ; and, 4th, some of the high-priests 
and elders (Luke xxii. 52). Among these was Judas. 
He had given some of them a sign by which they might 
know Jesus. Confused and disconcerted, we may suppose, 
by the consciousness of his treacherous purpose, he rushed 
forward and kissed his Master, who may still have been 
among the trees, and in such a position that the preconcerted 
signal would hardly be seen by the associates whom the 
traitor had left behind. The mild rebuke of our Saviour 
would increase the agitation and mental embarrassment of 
Judas, so that he may have fallen back, hardly knowing 
what he did, and therefore leaving his companions still in 



MATTHEW XXVI. 47-56. 459 

doubt as to which person was Jesus. The subsequent con- 
duct of Judas, as inferred from his repentance and death, 
shows how keen his sensibilities were, and that he might 
now have been wholly confused and disconcerted. At this 
moment Jesus came forward, as represented by John (xviii. 
4-9), and, giving himself up, by the extraordinary im- 
pression which his calm and majestic presence produced, 
gained for his disciples an opportunity of going away. But 
at that time another party of his assailants, perhaps, coming 
up and laying hands upon him, one of his followers asked, 
" Lord, shall we smite with the sword (fiaxalpa) ? " (Luke 
xxii. 49) ; and Peter, without waiting for a reply (John 
xviii. 10), drew his weapon (see note to verse 51) and cut 
off the right ear of one of the high-priest's servants. This 
would, of course, cause some commotion and delay. Jesus 
immediately commanded Peter to sheathe the weapon, and 
then healing the wound he thus allayed the anger of his 
enemies, which otherwise might have been dangerous to 
Peter. At the same time he rebuked the rashness of his 
disciple, by reminding him of the fatal consequences of such 
conduct, and, 53, the needlessness of any human inter- 
ference ; since even then he had only to ask for deliverance 
from his enemies, and it would be granted. It was still 
in his own power to live or die, as he had said (John x. 
18), " No man taketh it (my life) from me, but I lay it down 
of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power 
to take it again." But how then could the purposes of Di- 
vine mercy, as revealed in the Scriptures, be fulfilled ? In 
this same calm and self-collected spirit he appealed to the 
multitudes, — the high-priests, the officers of the temple, 
and the elders (Luke xxii. 52), — asking why they had come 
against him as against a robber, with weapons. But this 
also, he added, 56, was a part of the same divine plan as 
declared in the Scriptures. " All this was done in such a 
manner that the Scriptures of the prophets were fulfilled." 
Mark (xiv. 27), at an earlier period of the narrative, had 



460 MATTHEW XXVI. 57-68. 

quoted the passage (Zech. xiii. 7), "I will smite the shep- 
herd, and the sheep shall be scattered." Matthew, after the 
general reference to the prophets, adds, as Mark also does 
(xiv. 50), " Then all the disciples forsook him and fled." 
But Mark goes on to say, "And there followed him a certain 
young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body ; 
and the young men laid hold on him : and he left the linen 
cloth, and fled from them naked." All the Evangelists write 
that Peter followed Jesus afar off, and John adds (xviii. 15), 
undoubtedly speaking of himself, " and so did another dis- 
ciple : that disciple was known unto the high-priest, and 
went in with Jesus into the hall [not the palace] of the 
high-priest." 

57-68. — Jesus taken before the High-Priest. 

The distance from Gethsemane to the nearest gate of the 
city is less than a thousand feet. The house, or rather pal- 
ace, of the high-priest was probably on the northeastern 
slope of Mount Zion, very near the temple, and perhaps a 
third of a mile from the fortress of Antonia, where the 
Roman Procurator or governor had his quarters. Jesus 
was taken first to Annas, who had been high-priest, and was 
father-in-law to Caiaphas (John xviii. 13). Annas, who 
may have been in the same palace with his son-in-law, 
sent Jesus bound to Caiaphas (John xviii. 24). His being 
sent to Annas is omitted by the first three Evangelists as a 
circumstance of little importance. This examination before 
Caiaphas was only an informal preliminary investigation ; 
" for it was not lawful to try causes of a capital nature in 
the night." (Jahn's Bib. Arch. 246.) The object of the ex- 
amination was, not to discover what crimes the prisoner had 
committed, but what charges could be brought against him 
with the best prospect of causing him to be put to death. 
As a trial, the whole proceedings were irregular and illegal. 

He was taken to the high-priest, with whom (Mark xiv. 



MATTHEW XXVI. 69-75. 461 

53) all the high-priests, elders, and scribes had assembled.. 
The whole Sanhedrim (Council) sought false testimony 
against him in order to put him to death. After many 
unsuccessful efforts, 60, 61, they at last succeeded in getting 
two witnesses, who, by perverting both the words and the 
application of an expression which he had used a long time 
before (John ii. 19), gave some color of excuse for the 
charge of blasphemy. Whereupon the high-priest asked 
Jesus what explanation he could make in regard to the 
accusation. Jesus, knowing that they were only seeking 
to compass his death, made no reply. Then the high-priest 
said, " I adjure thee by the living God to tell me whether 
thou art the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus replied, " Thou 
hast said " (" I am," Mark xiv. 62.) Then addressing him- 
self to the assembled representatives of the Jewish people, 
in language more impressive to them from its resemblance 
to a remarkable passage in one of their prophets (Dan. vii. 
13, 14), he continued, " Hereafter shall ye see the Son of 
man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming upon 
the clouds of heaven." This was enough. The high-priest, 
as an expression of his horror at such blasphemy, rent his 
garments ; when, catching his spirit, the attendants who held 
Jesus (Luke xxii. 63, 64) spit in his face, and, having 
blindfolded him, smote him with the palms of their hands 
and with sticks, saying in derision, " Prophesy to us now, 
thou Christ, who it is that is striking thee." 

69 - 75. — Peter's Denial. 

"While these things were taking place, another series oi 
incidents was occurring, which is recorded, though with 
slight differences, by all the Evangelists. In order to un- 
derstand the narratives, it is necessary to understand some- 
thing of the architecture of a Jewish palace. It was " usually 
built round a quadrangular interior court ; into which there 
is a passage (sometimes arched) through the front part of 
39* 



462 MATTHEW XXVI. 69-75. 

the house, closed next to the street by a heavy folding gate, 
with a small wicket for single persons, kept by a porter." 
(Robinson's Harmony, 225.) This interior court is some- 
times called ai\r), or the hall, and the passage from the 
street to it, npnavXiov or nvXav, the porch or gateway. When 
Jesus was first brought to the high-priest, Peter followed 
him at a distance as far as to the hall, 58, (not palace, but 
hall, or open court), into which he was brought by a disciple 
(John) who was known to the high-priest. There in the 
hall he sat by a fire which had been made (John xviii. 16, 
18), to see what was passing in the room in which Jesus 
was, and which would be open on the side next to the court. 
While he was sitting out here, 69, i. e. outside of the room 
where Jesus was, he was recognized by a damsel as one of 
those who had been with Jesus, and charged with having 
been with him. But he denied the charge. In order to 
withdraw himself from observation, he then went out into 
the passage-way or porch, 71, and there being recognized 
very soon, he denied his Master the second time. After 
about an hour, during which time he had probably returned 
to the court, he was recognized a third time, when with 
vehement imprecations he denied all knowledge of the man. 
At that moment the cock crew, and Jesus, who was in a 
room that was open on the side towards the court, turned 
and looked upon him, and he, remembering the prediction, 
rushed out through the passage-way and wept bitterly. It 
is possible that the third denial took place just as they had 
bound Jesus and were leading him away to Pilate. For 
" the morning," spoken of Matt, xxvii. 1, began with the 
cock-crowing, or at three o'clock. 



MATTHEW XXVI. 463 



NOTES. 



And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these say- 

2 ings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is 
the feast of the passover ; and the Son of man is betrayed to 
be crucified. 

3 Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, 
and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high-priest, 

4 who was called Caiaphas ; and consulted that they might take 

5 Jesus by subtilty and kill him. But they said, Not on the 
feast-day, lest there be an uproar among the people. 

6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the 

7 leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box 
of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat 

8 at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, 

9 saying, To what purpose is this waste ? For this ointment 
io might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When 

Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the 

n woman ? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye 

have the poor always with you ; but me ye have not always. 

12 For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did 

13 it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this 
gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also 
this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. 

14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the 
is chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I 



2. after two days is the real name. Josephus calls him " Jo- 
feast of the Passover] i. e. seph Caiaphas." 5. Not on 
on the next day. 3. the feast £ay] Our translators 
the chief priests] or high-priests, have inserted the word day without 
This office was originally for life, authority. It should be, Not during 
and was received by right of inheri- the festival. The expression refers 
tance. But Herod the Great changed to the whole period of the feast or 
the high-priest at his pleasure, and festival, which continued eight Jew- 
the Roman Procurators or governors ish, or seven of our days, 
followed his example in this respect. 12. she did it for my buri- 
Valerius Gratus, who appointed Cai- al] rather, she did it to prepare me 
aphas to the office, had, according for burial. Sometimes a long period 
to Josephus (Ant. XVIII. 2. 2), ap- intervened between the preparation 
pointed and displaced five or six of a body for burial and the burial 
high-priests within a few years. itself. The preparing of Jacob's 
who was called] sumamed, body for burial (Gen. 1. 2) took 
i. e. being called in addition to his place in Egypt, his sepulture in 



464 



MATTHEW XXVI. 



will deliver him unto you ? And they covenanted with him for 
thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportu- is 
nity to betray him. 

Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disci- n 
pies came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we 
prepare for thee to eat the passover ? And he said, Go into is 



Canaan. 15. And 

they covenanted with him 
for] or paid to him thirty pieces of 
silver, — thirty silverlings it has been 
translated, or shekels of silver, — 
about fifteen or twenty dollars. As 
the thirty shekels were the esti- 
mated value of a slave's life (Ex. 
xxi. 32), that sum may have been 
fixed upon as a mark of eon- 
tempt towards Jesus. 
17. the passover] was instituted for 
the purpose of preserving among 
the Hebrews the memory of their 
liberation from Egyptian servitude, 
and of the safety of their first-born 
on that night when the first-born of 
the Egyptians perished. (Exod. xii.) 
It was celebrated for seven days 
(Lev. xxiii. 4- 8), during the whole 
of which time the people ate un- 
leavened bread. On the eve of the 
14th day of the month Abib the 
leaven was removed. On the 10th 
of the month the master of a family 
separated a ram or a goat of a year 
old. It was taken to the appointed 
court of the temple, and there slain 
and prepared in the presence of a 
priest, that he might see that it was 
free from defect or disease, and 
sprinkle its blood on the altar. It 
was slain on the 14th day of the 
month, between the two evenings. 
" The Pharisees and Eabbinists, ac- 
cording to the Mishna (Pesach 5. 3) 
held the first evening to commence 
with the declining sun ; and the sec- 
ond evening with the setting sun. 
This latter view was the prevailing 
one in the time of our Lord; the 
hour of evening sacrifice and prayer 
being then the ninth hour, or 3 P. M. 
(Acts iii. 1); and the paschal lamb 
being regularly killed between the 
ninth and eleventh hours. (Jose- 
phus, Jewish Wars, VI. 9. 3.)" Rob- 
inson's Lexicon. It was roasted 
whole, with two spits thrust through 



it, the one lengthwise, the other 
transversely, so that the animal was 
in a manner crucified. Its flesh was 
divided, and served to those who 
partook, with a salad of wild and 
bitter herbs. Not fewer than ten 
nor more than twenty persons assem- 
bled in one place "to observe the 
feast. At first the Passover was 
eaten by them standing, with the 
loins girt about, and with shoes on 
the feet. But this was not the case 
at the time of our Saviour, when 
the Greek and Eoman custom of 
reclining at the table prevailed. 
" It is the custom of slaves," says 
the Jerusalem Talmud, ''to eat 
standing: but now Israelites eat 
reclining, to denote that they 
passed from servitude into free- 
dom." Jahn's Ai-chasology. " The 
paschal supper, 1. began with the 
first cup of wine, before drinking 
which the master of the household 
offered a prayer of thanksgiving to 
God for the gift of wine. Then was 
put on the table, 2. a supply of 
bitter herbs, commemorative of the 
bitter life led in Egypt: of these, 
dipped in an acid and salt liquid, 
each partook amid songs of praise. 
Then followed, 3. the serving of the 
unleavened bread, of the highly- 
seasoned Jcharoset, or broth of the 
paschal lamb, and the peace-offer- 
ings (Lev. iii. 3; x. 14). There- 
upon, 4. the master, after blessing 
Him who made heaven and earth, 
dipped a portion of the bitter herbs, 
about the size of an olive, into the 
kkaroset, and ate the sop. In this 
act he was imitated by all at the 
table. 5. The second cup was made 
ready; and this was the point at 
which the father of the family, 
asked or unasked by his son, ex- 
plained the import of the feast in 
all its parts." After singing, 6. 
the first part of the series of Psalms 



MATTHEW XXVI. 



4G5 



the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, 
My time is at hand ; I will keep the passover at thy house with 

19 my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed 

20 them; and they made ready the passover. Now when the 

21 even was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they 

did eat, he said, Verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall 

22 betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began 

23 every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I ? And he 
answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the 

24 dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of man goeth, as it 
is written of him ; but woe unto that man by whom the Son of 
man is betrayed ! it had been good for that man if he had not 

25 been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and 
siiid, Master, is it I ? He said unto him, Thou hast said. 

26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed 

it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, 

27 eat ; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, 

28 and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it ; for this is my 
blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the re- 

29 mission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink hence- 



termed the Hallel (Ps. cxiii., cxiv.), 
the master, 7. washed his hands, 
and, breaking a loaf, pronounced a 
thanksgiving, and then, the cere- 
monial preparation being finished, 
the meal, 8. properly was eaten. 
It was at this period probably that 
Jesus, troubled in spirit, said, 21, 
" Verily I say unto you, that one of 
you shall betray me." See Beard's 
Biblical Reading-Book, p. 254. 

24. it had been good for that 
man if he had not been born] 
" This phrase does not necessarily 
imply the interminable eternity of 
perdition: for it is a proverbial ex- 
pression. Cf. Luke xxiii. 29, Eccle- 
siasticus xxiii. 14. Judas obtains a 
situation of exclusively pre-eminent 
misery amongst the "souls of the 
damned. For so long a time he 
accompanied our Lord, not with- 
out sharing the sorrows connected 
therewith; a little before the joy- 
ful pentecost he died." 
that man] " The words, that man, 
might seem a predicate. That is 
the designation of one who is con- 



sidered already far off." Bengel. 
We find in the Gospel narratives no 
ground for sympathy with those 
who would excuse or palliate the 
conduct of Judas. He who could 
be so long a time with Jesus, and 
yet gain nothing of his moral and 
spiritual power, must have closed 
his heart against all that Avas high 
or holy. The very terms of his 
proposal to the rulers, 15, " What 
will ye give me if I will deliver him 
to you?" show how base and shame- 
less his motives were, and are en- 
tirely inconsistent with the view 
sometimes entertained, that Judas 
took this step only that he might 
urge Jesus on to announce his real 
purpose and to assume the roj 7 al 
authority which belonged to him as 
the Messiah. His subsequent re- 
morse, ending in death, shows in- 
deed strong sensibilities, but this 
only aggravates his guilt. For it 
indicates what he had to struggle 
against in his own heart before he 
could bring himself to betray his 
Lord for the price at which a 



m 



MATTHEW XXVI. 



forth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it 
new with you in my Father's kingdom. 

And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the 30 



slave's life was valued, and thus 
proves him to have been, in spite of 
his better nature, guilty of the two 
most detestable crimes, avarice and 
treachery, if not also of murder. 
No good can come from the attempt 
to extenuate the guilt of such a 
character. 29. when I 

drink it new with you in my 
Father's kingdom] The word 
new, kclivov, used here, is not the 
same as that which is used, ix. 17, 
veov, to describe the newly-made 
wine which was not to be put into old 
bottles. It is the same word which 
is applied to the new covenant, or 
Christian dispensation, to distin- 
guish it from the old covenant, or 
Mosaic dispensation. It means, not 
something newly made of the same 
sort, but something of a different 
sort. As the religion of Jesus is the 
spiritual fulfilment of that which 
was shadowed forth in the Mosaic 
dispensation, so " the wine " which 
he will drink "new" with his disci- 
ples in the kingdom of his Father, 
is the spiritual refreshment and life 
which shall be the perfect fulfil- 
ment of that which is now only 
symbolized by the eucharistic wine, 
or, in its spiritual sense, the blood of 
Christ. " The Jewish Passover was 
superseded by the Lord's Supper; 
this Avill be again succeeded by fur- 
ther things of a heavenly nature." 
Bengel. Another instance this of 
the way in which Jesus rises from 
the natural to the spiritual signifi- 
cation of language, without a single 
explanatory word to show where 
the transition takes place. We 
have only the connection in which 
the words are found to guide us 
in the interpretation. " Emblem," 
says Lord Bacon, "reduceth con- 
ceits [conceptions] intellectual to 
images sensible, which strike the 
memory more." " The scope or 
purpose of the Spirit of God is not 
to express matters of nature in 
the Scriptures otherwise than in 
passage, and for application to 



man's capacity, and to matters 
moral or divine." 30. 

sung an hymn] The word thus 
translated may mean that the 
hymn was either sung or recited. 

into the Mount of Olives] 
One of the most affecting incidents 
in the Bible is related in connec- 
tion with the Mount of Olives, and 
forms no unsuitable introduction to 
the agony of Gethsemane. When 
Absalom had rebelled against his 
father, David, leaving the ark of 
God in Jerusalem, " went up by 
the ascent of Mount Olivet, and 
wept as he went up, and had his 
head covered, and he went bare- 
foot: and all the people that was 
with him covered every man his 
head, and went up, weeping as they 
went up." (2 Sam. xv. 30.) The 
western base of the Mount of Olives 
is bounded by the brook Kedron, 
and is one or two hundred yards 
distant from the eastern wall of the 
temple. The summit is about 2750 
feet above the Mediterranean, and 
4060 feet above the Dead Sea, and 
137 feet above the highest part of 
Jerusalem. (See Barclay's Jerusa- 
lem, pp. 104, 105.) The mean dis- 
tance of that part of the summit 
which lies opposite to the city, from 
the eastern wall of Jerusalem, is 
about half a mile by the nearest 
pathway, and of course, in a 
straight line, much less. " When 
about half the way up the ascent," 
says Prof. Hackett, " I found my- 
self, apparently, off against the lev- 



el of Jerusalem. 



Three paths, 



deeply worn," he says, " lead over 

the mount We gaze at those 

paths the more intently because we 
have no doubt that the feet of the 
Saviour trod them again and again 
as he approached the city or left it. 
That reflection came over me with 
such power, as my eyes fell upon 
them for the first time, that I could 
not refrain from weeping." Olivet 
" must have been adorned, ancient- 
ly, with fields of grain, "rovo* <— i 



MATTHEW XXVI. 



467 



31 Mount of Olives. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall 
be offended because of me this night; for it is written, "I 
will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be 

32 scattered abroad." But after I am risen again, I will go be- 

33 fore you into Galilee. Peter answered and said unto him, 



orchards. At present it exhibits, on 
the -whole, a desolate appearance. 
Rocky ledges crop out here and 
there above the surface, and give to 
the hill a broken, sterile aspect. 
The loose soil, which might cover 
them in part, is left to be washed 
away. Yet the mount is not whol- 
ly destitute of verdure even now. 
A few spots are planted with grain; 
and fruit-trees, as almonds, figs, 
pomegranates, olives, are scattered 
up and down its sides. The 
olives take the lead decidedly, and 
thus vindicate the propriety of the 
ancient name." Barclay, in his 
" City of the Great King," p. 60, 
says 'that " there is not in all the 
world a prospect so delightful to 
behold as the panorama to be en- 
joyed by ascending the minaret 
alongside the Church of the As- 
cension, that now crowns the ele- 
vation nearest the city." From this 
point towards the east are to be 
seen the Dead Sea, the valley of the 
Jordan, where a green streak " — 
"a blue strip" it appeared to Dr. 
Hackett — " on a whitish ground 
marks the course of the river," and 
beyond the plain of the Jordan, from 
north to south, appears a continuous 
chain of mountains, as far as the 
steep cliffs of the Dead Sea, above 
which rises, deeper in the country, 
Jebel Shihan, with its compressed 
and gently rising summit, which in 
the winter time is frequently cov- 
ered with snow." 31. for 
it is written, I will smite the 
Shepherd] These words (Zech. 
xiii. 7) are from a prophecy which, 
we think, in several places glances 
on through the shadows of interven- 
ing events to the Messiah. " My 
servant, the Branch" (Zech. iii. 8), 
and again (vi. 12, 13), u the man 
whose name is the Branch," who 
" shall build the temple of the 
Lord," who "shall bear the glory," 



and " be a priest upon his throne," 
refers, according to Dr. Noyes, to 
the Messiah. So does (ix. 9) " Re- 
joice greatly, daughter of Zion," 
" behold thy king cometh unto thee," 
" lowly, and riding upon an ass, even 
a colt, the foal of an ass." See 
Matt. xxi. 5. The words (xii. 10), 
" they shall look on me whom they 
have pierced," (see John xix. 37,) 
may have looked forward to the 
same period for their fulfilment. 
The passage here quoted by the 
Saviour is more obscure in the con- 
nection from which it is taken in 
Zechariah, but in the obscured 
gleams of coming conflicts and 
glory which passed before the 
prophet's mind, the vision may 
have been designed by the Om- 
niscient Spirit to foreshadow the 
specific event to which the* words 
are here applied by Jesus. With 
our views of prophecy, there is no 
serious difficulty in this interpreta- 
tion. 32. But after I 
am risen again, I will go be- 
fore you into Galilee] This 
passage has troubled the commen- 
tators. " It is something extremely 
improbable," says Schleiermacher, 
" that Jesus, if he foresaw so exact- 
ly the days of his resurrection, and 
therefore' could not but know that 
he should see his disciples again 
more than once in Jerusalem, 
should here have said that he. 
would lead them into Galilee." 
At this distance of time, and 
with our ignorance of the cir- 
cumstances, it is impossible for 
us to say why such a promise 
should or" should not be made at 
that particular time. The meeting 
of the disciples with the Lord in 
Galilee after the resurrection holds 
a prominent place in the Gospel of 
Matthew (xxviii. 7, 10, 16,) and 
makes the impressive close of the 
Gospel of John. And there may 



463 



MATTHEW XXVI. 



Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I 
never be offended. Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say unto 34 
thee, that this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny 
me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with 35 
thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the * 
disciples. 

Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsem- 36 
ane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and 



have been special reasons for fixing 
in the minds of the disciples the 
fact that they, and perhaps the 
larger company, " above five hun- 
dred brethren at once," mentioned 
by St. Paul (1 Cor. xv. 6), were to 
meet him in Galilee. The ardent 
and confiding impetuosity of Peter's 
character, 33, shows itself here. 
Probably the precise reply of Jesus 
is given by Mark (xiv. 30) as he 
received it from St. Peter himself: 
" Verily I say unto thee, that thou 
to-day, this very night, before the 
cock has crowed twice, shalt deny 
me thrice." But Peter could not 
believe that the warning was need- 
ed, and replied, " Though it should 
be necessary to die with thee, I Avill 
not deny thee; " and likewise all the 
rest of the disciples asserted the 
same, in their vain self-confidence. 

34. this night, before the 
cock crow, thou shalt deny me 
thrice] How is this to be recon- 
ciled with Mark xiv. 30, "Before 
the cock has crowed twice, thou 
shalt deny me thrice " ? The dif- 
ference is so slight that it may be 
allowed to stand without impairing 
our confidence at all in the writers. 
But the passages may perhaps be 
reconciled. •" The first cock-crow- 
ing is at midnight; but inasmuch as 
few hear it, when the word is used 
. generally, we mean the second crow- 
ing, early in the morning, before 
dawn. If this view be taken," the 
two expressions, before the cock- 
crow, and before the cock crow 
twice, " amount to the same, — only 
the latter is the more accurate ex- 
pression. It is most likely that 
Peter understood this expression as 
only a mark of time, and therefore 
received it, as when it was spoken 



before, as merely an expression of 
distrust on the Lord's part; it was 
this solemn and circumstantial rep- 
etition of it which afterwards struck 
upon his mind when the sign itself 
was literally fulfilled." Alford. We 
do not think this explanation per- 
fectly satisfactory. We know too 
little about it to speak with con- 
fidence. It has been questioned 
whether cocks were kept in Jerusa- 
lem. But even if they were not 
kept by the Jews, which is by no 
means certain, they may have been. 
kept by the Komans who resided 
in the city. The different night 
watches among the Eoman soldiers 
w r ei-e announced by the sound of the 
trumpet. (Livy, XXVI. 15.) Cicero, 
Pro Murena, 9, in contrasting the 
civil with the military life, says, 
" You [the civilian] are roused by 
the crowing of the cock, he [the 
soldier] by the sound of the trum- 
pet." In Jerusalem the night 
watches may have been indicated 
to the citizens generally by the 
sound of the trumpet in the tower 
of Antonia, which was the head- 
quarters of the military, and from 
which the blast of the trumpet 
might easily be heard in the hall 
of the high-priest's palace. " The 
cock crew " may have been the cus- 
tomary form of expression for the 
sounding of the trumpet which an- 
nounced the completion of that pe- 
riod of the night which was called 
" the cock-crowing." The watches 
were reckoned backward; midnight 
beginning at nine, and cock-crow- 
ing at twelve (Mark xiii. 35), and 
were announced, not at the begin- 
ning, but at the close. 36. 
Gethsemane] To some persons 
the fact that Kedron, the name of 



MATTHEW XXVI. 



469 



37 pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons 

38 of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then 
saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto 

39 death : tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a 
little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my 
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ! never- 

40 theless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto 



the brook over which Jesus passed 
on his way to Gethsemane, means, 
to be black, and Gethsemane, an 
olive-press, may suggest thoughts in 
accordance with the associations of 
the place and hour. Gethsemane is 
but a very short distance from the 
city, the north end of the garden 
being about 145 feet beyond the 
bridge over the Kedron, and 985 feet 
from the nearest gate of the city. 
" It is the spot," says Professor 
Hackett, " above every other which 
the visitor must be anxious to see. 
It is the one which I sought out be- 
fore any other, and the one of which 
I took my last formal view on the 
morning of my departure. The tra- 
dition which places the agony and 
betrayal of the Saviour here "has a 
great amount of evidence in its sup- 
port The space enclosed as 

Gethsemane contains about one third 
of an acre, and is surrounded by a low 
wall covered with white stucco. It 
is entered by a gate, kept under lock 
and key, under the control of one 
of the convents at Jerusalem. The 
eight olive-trees here are evidently 
very aged, .... and it is not im- 
possible that those now here may 
have sprung from the roots of 
those which grew there in the days 

of Christ As I sat beneath the 

olives, and observed Iioav very near 
the city Avas, with what perfect ease 
a person there could survey at a 
glance the entire length of the east- 
ern wall, and the slope of the hill 
towards the valley, I could not di- 
vest myself of the impression that 
this local peculiarity should be al- 
lowed to explain a passage in the 
account of the Saviour's apprehen- 
sion. Every one must have noticed 
something abrupt in his summons 
to the disciples, — ' Arise, let us be 
40 



going; see, he is at hand that doth 
betray me.' (Matt. xxvi. 46.) It is 
not improbable that his Avatchful 
eye, at that moment, caught sight 
of Judas and his accomplices, as 
they issued from one of the eastern 
gates, or turned round the northern 
or southern corner of the walls, in 
order to descend into the valley." 

37. to be sorrowful and 
very heavy] " To be in great dis- 
tress, and almost beside one's self for 
trouble." Bengel. 38. My soul 

is exceeding sorroAvful, even 
unto death] A Hebrew form of 
speech indicating sorrow in the great- 
est possible degree. Saul, the sentient 
principle of animal and spiritual life. 
This is the only instance, we be- 
lieve, in which Jesus uses the word 
death to express bodily dissolution, 
unless when obliged to do so in 
order to prevent misapprehension. 
Death with him applies to the soul. 
(John v. 24; viii. 51, 52; xi. 26.) 
Can it be that he uses the word in 
this sense here, to intimate that in 
the extremity of his anguish it was 
as if he were subjected, for the time, 
to the pangs of spiritual death, and 
bi-ought so into contact with the 
sins and consequent sufferings of 
the world, that he felt their dread- 
ful weight of woe and death, as if 
they had been laid upon his own 
soul? 39. this cup] " We 

may be sure that the cup which he 
prayed might pass from him could 
not have been merely the bodily 
pain and death, which so many 
men have endured with unshrink- 
ing fortitude." Whately. It was 
the shuddering sense of horror and 
grief that was overwhelming him, 
respecting which he prayed that it 
might pass from him, and in regard 
to which his prayer was heard. 



470 MATTHEW XXVI. 

the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, 
What ! could ye not watch with me one hour ? Watch, and 41 
pray, that ye enter not into temptation ; the spirit indeed is 
willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again the sec- 42 
Ond time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may 
not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. 
And he came and found them asleep again : for their eyes were 43 
heavy. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed 44 
the third time, saying the same words. Then cometh he to his 45 
disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your 
rest ; behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is be- 
trayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going ; behold, 46 
he is at hand that doth betray me. 

And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, 47 
and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from 
the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that be- 48 
trayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall 
kiss, that same is he : hold him fast. And forthwith he came 49 
to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master ; and kissed him. And so 
Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come ? Then 



40. asleep] deeping for 45. Sleep on now! The 

sorrow. (Luke xxii. 45.) " There is agony is now over. Jesus no longer 

another symptom of grief, which is requires their sympathy. He there- 

not often noticed, and that is pro- fore lets them sleep on, though the 

found sleep. I have often witnessed hour and the man of treachery are 

it even in mothers, immediately after at hand. After this, the disciples 

the death of a child. Criminals, we may have taken their rest for a 

are told by Mr. Akerman, the keep- considerable time, before he saw 

er of Newgate, in London, often the company with their torches and 

sleep soundly the night before their lanterns coming to seize him, when, 

execution. "The son of Gen. Cus- verse 46, he roused his disciples that 



tine slept nine hours the night be- they might have a few moments in 

fore he was led to the guillotine in which to awake and recover them 

Paris." Dr. Rush. 41. selves before they were assailed 

tout the flesh is Aveak] " We 49. and kissed him] 

ought to take this, not as an excuse was not unusual for a master to kiss 

for torpor, but as an incentive to his disciple; but for a disciple to 

watchfulness." Bengel. " An aban- kiss his master was more rare, 

donment to sorrow and its sequent Whether, therefore, Judas did this 

emotions, diminishes the dominant under pretence of respect, or out 

energy of the spirit, and thus facili- of open contempt and derision, let 

tates the victory of indwell ino- sin; it be inquired." Lightfoot. 
whilst to struggle against the beset- 50. Friend] companion. 

ting disposiHon, and to give our- See xx. 13, " Friend, I do thee no 

selves to prayer, which supplies wrong." The word must have come 

man with fresh energy from the home sharply to the heart of Judas, 

spiritual world, secure' us against " Friend, wherefore art thou come?" 

temptation." Olshausen. " Betrayest thou the Son of man 



mi- jr 



MATTHEW XXVI. 



471 



51 came they and laid hands on Jesus, and took him. And, 

behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his 
hand, and drew his sword ; and struck a servant of the high- 



with a kiss?" The latter half of 
the appeal is from Luke. We sup- 
pose that both the expressions were 
used by Jesus, and not, with Alford, 
that the meaning of the words re- 
ported by Luke is involved in the 
expression recorded by Matthew. 
It may have been thiis : When 
Jesus saw Judas coming near, he 
may have said, " Friend, why art 
thou coming?" and then after the 
kiss was given, he may in a dif- 
ferent tone have added, " Judas, 
betrayest thou the Son of man with 
a kiss?" 51. and drew 

his sword] What was the weapon 
or instrument here denoted? The 
word used by all the Evangelists is 
fid^aipa, machaira, of which the 
primary meaning is a knife, a large 
Knife, a slaughter-knife. Among the 
Greeks in the heroic ages it was 
worn suspended in a sheath by the 
sword on the left side of the body, 
and was used on all occasions as a 
knife. (See Smith's Greek and 
Roman Antiquities ; Homer's Iliad, 
III. 271-273; Herod. II. 61.) It was 
used either as a weapon or a knife. 
In the Septuagint version of the 
Old Testament the word is used to 
designate just such an instrument, 
and whether it is to be rendered 
knife or sword must be determined 
by the accompanying circum- 
stances. For example, in Ezekiel 
xxvi. 15, " Thus saith the Lord 
God to Tyre, Shall not the islands 
be shaken at the sound of thy fall, 
when the wounded groan, when the 
machaira is drawn in the midst of 
thee ? " In our English version this 
last clause is rendered, " When the 
slaughter is made in the midst of 
thee," and the word machaira, an 
instrument employed not only in 
war, but primarily in slaughtering 
cattle, may have been used in this 
its primary sense, to describe the 
butchery of an effeminate and help- 
less people at the hands of their 
enemies. In Genesis xxvii. 40, 
" And by thy machaira shalt thou 



live, and shalt serve thy brother," 
the word may be rendered as a 
knife to be used by the hunter, 
rather than as a sword to be used 
only in war. In Ex. xv. 9, " The 
enemy said, I will pursue, I will 
overtake, I will divide the spoil, I 
will fill my soul, I will destroy with 
the machaira, my hand shall pre- 
vail," the word is used to designate 
a weapon of war; as it also is in 
Gen. xxxi. 26, " and carried away 
my daughters as captives taken 
with the machaira.'''' On the other 
hand, in Gen. xxii. 6, 10, machaira 
is the instrument (properly trans- 
lated knife) which Abraham took 
with him: " And he took the fire in 
his hand, and a knife." " And Abra- 
ham stretched forth his hand, and 
took the knife to slay his son." 
And in 1 Kings xviii. 28, the 
machairai were the knives with 
which and with lancets the priests 
of Baal cut themselves, " till the 
blood gushed out upon them." Now 
the language of the Septuagint was 
evidently as familiar to the Evan- 
gelists as that of the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures. Their quotations are often 
made from it, and its use of Greek 
words would have great influence 
with them. As far as that influence 
was concerned, they may have used 
the word machaira in either sense ; 
but its primary meaning was that 
of knife, and they had at least one 
other word, pofx^aia (Luke ii. 35; 
Rev. i. 16; ii. 12, 16; vi. 8; xix. 15, 
21) by which to denote a sword 
without ambiguity. We must then 
be guided by the circumstances of 
the case in the construction that we 
put upon the word in any particular 
instance in which it is used by them. 
There is no doubt that machaira 
would properly designate the knives 
used by the jews in killing, dress- 
ing, and dividing sacrifices, in pre- 
paring animal food before it Avas 
cooked, and in carving it afterwards. 
When earned, they were, for safety 
and convenience, secured in a 



472 



MATTHEW XXVI. 



priest, and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, 52 
Put up again thy sword into his place ; for all they that take 



sheath. Except in the passage be- 
fore us, and those connected with 
it, the word is found in the Gospels 
o&ly twice. " I came not to send 
peace, but a machaira; for I am 
come to divide a man from (or 
against) his father, and a daughter 
against her mother." (Matt. x. 34, 
35.) Here, as opposed to peace, 
the warlike use of the weapon is 
first suggested ; but in the explana- 
tion which follows, dividing one 
against another, or separating one 
from another, the other use of the 
instrument may possibly be indi- 
cated. "And they shall fall by the 
edge of the machaira, and shall be 
led away captive into all nations." 
(Luke xxi. .24.) In this case it is 
spoken of as a weapon of war. In 
the Acts it occurs twice : " And he 
killed James the brother of John 
with the sword " (xii. 2), the exe- 
cutioner's sword. "And the keeper 
of the prison, awaking out of his 
sleep, and seeing the prison doors 
open, he drew out his machaira and 
would have killed himself." (xvi. 
27.) In both these cases the word 
is rightly translated sword, though 
the instrument spoken of may have 
been used both as a knife and a 
sword. In the Epistles of Paul the 
word occurs twice. " Who shall 
separate us from the love of Christ? 

Shall tribulation or distress, 

or peril, or machaira ? " (Rom. viii. 
35.) " For he [the ruler] bearethnot 
the machaira in vain." (Rom. xiii. 
4.) In both these cases the warlike 
use of the instrument is what is 
first suggested by the connection. 
In the Epistle to the Hebrews (xi. 
34, 37), "escaped the edge of the 
machaira,'''' " were slain with the 
machaira,' 1 '' the same idea evidently 
lies uppermost. But Heb. iv. 12 
appears to describe the other and 
peaceful uses of the instrument. 
" For the word of God is living and 
effective, sharper tban any two- 
edged machaira, penetrating even 
to the dividing asunder of soul and 
spirit, both of joints and marrow, 
and a discerner of the thoughts and 



imaginations of the heart." The 
machaira, as a knife, was used to 
separate the joints, to take out the 
marrow, and to divide and open the 
animal offered for sacrifice, so that 
the priest could inspect all its in- 
ward parts. Thus it might be said 
to be a discerner (the idea of divis- 
ion lying at the root of the expres- 
sion) of the thoughts and imagina- 
tions of the heart. In the Apoca- 
lypse the word occurs three times. 
(Rev. vi. 4, xiii. 10, 14), and in each 
case as a destructive weapon. The 
result of this examination goes to 
show that the word machaira, .pri- 
marily signifying an instrument 
which was used both us a weapon 
of war and as a knife, was employed 
by the writers in the New Testa- 
ment to denote an instrument which 
might be used for either of these 
purposes, but which was most fre- 
quently named in reference to its 
warlike uses. In which capacity 
is the instrument spoken of in the 
connection before us? We give 
the reply nearly in the words of 
a very intelligent and painstaking- 
student of the Scriptures, who has 
kindly favored us with his views : — 
" About sunset Peter and John, 
in obedience to the command, ' Go 
and prepare for us the Passover," 
(Luke xxii. 8,) had killed and pre- 
pared the paschal lamb. In doing 
this, and in dividing the roasted 
lamb for those who partook, they 
must have had knives. Those now 
used by the Jews for such purpot es 
vary from six to eighteen inches 
in length, and when carried are 
secured in a belt, girdle, or sheath. 
Machaira is unquestionably a word 
which might well be used to denote 
such an instrument. Between the 
Paschal feast and the institution of 
the Lord's Supper, soon after Judas 
had left the chamber, while warn- 
ing his disciples of the inhospitality 
for which they must now be pi-e- 
pared (Luke xxii. 35-38), Jesus 
inquired of them if, when he had 
sent them without any provision 
for their physical wants, ' without 



MATTHEW XXVI. 



473 



53 the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I 
cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me 



purse and scrip and shoes,' they 
had lacked anything ; and they 
answered, ' Nothing.' ' But now,'' 
he said, as if circumstances had 
changed, and they must do some- 
thing to provide for themselves, — 
' But now he that hath a purse let 
him take it, likewise also a hag ; 
and he who has not [one], let him 
sell his cloak and buy a machaira. 
For I say unto you that this which 
is written, " And he was reckoned 
among the transgressors," must 
now be accomplished \rikea6rivaC\ 
in me. And indeed the things 
[written] concerning me are hav- 
ing their accomplishment [TeXo?].' 
And they said, ' Lord, behold, here 
are two machairai.'' And he said to 
them, ' It is enough.' Were not these 
the machairai which had been used 
late in the afternoon by Peter and 
John in killing and dressing the 
paschal lamb, and later still at the 
table in dividing the lamb among 
those who partook ? Chrysostom, 
commenting on Matt. xxvi. 51, says : 
' But whence were these machairai? 
They [the disciples] had come from 
supper and from the table. Where- 
fore it is probable that the machairai 
were there on account of the lamb, 
and that they [the disciples] hear- 
ing that an attack would be made 
upon their Master, took them for aid 
against those who should assail him.' 
In Matt. Horn. Ixxxiv. al. lxxxv. 
Opp. VII. 797, 798, ed. Montfaucon. 
Theophvlact, on the same passage 
of Matthew, says: ' He [Peter] had 
a machaira because he had just 
slain the lamb which they ate.' 
Opp. (Venet. 1754, fol.) 1. 151. Cor- 
nelius a Lapide, in his note on Matt. 
xxvi. says : ' That this sword of St. 
Peter was a knife which the Apostles 
had used in slaving and eating the 
lamb, is maintained by Toletus on 
John xviii. 10. This view is fa- 
vored also by Chrysostom, Theo- 
phylact, Joannes Maior, Jansenius 
on Matt, xxvi.' Comm. in Matt. 
p. 494. _ Neander says: 'The word 
(machairai) may 'be translated 
40* 



knives, and these were in common use 
among travellers in those regions.' 
Life of Jesns, Am. Version (New 
York, 1848), p. 393. 

" Later in that night, Judas came, 
and with him a great multitude, 
with machairai and staves, — not 
spears, the more appropriate weapon 
of warriors, but staves or clubs, and 
such other weapons, most likely 
knives, as were at hand, to be 
hastily seized by the multitude. 
Alexander, in his Comm. on Mark 
xiv. 43 - 48, suggests the rendering 
' knives and sticks.'' Some of the 
multitude laid hands on Jesus. 'And 
when his followers saw what was 
about to take place, they said to 
him, Lord, shall we smite with the 
machaira ? . And one of them smote 
the servant of the high-priest, and 
struck off his right ear.' (Luke xxii. 
49, 50.) Then Jesus saith unto him, 
' Put up again thy machaira into its 
place; for all they who take the 
sword shall perish by the sword.' 
(Matt. xxvi. 52.) In his rebuke to 
Peter, Jesus evidently implied that 
the disciple, in making the use of 
the machaira which he did as a 
weapon of war and violence, had 
misunderstood and perverted his 
meaning in the conversation re- 
specting it at the paschal table. But 
were they who put the question, 
' Lord, shall we smite with the 
sword?' Peter and John, or one of 
them for both ? There were but 
two machairai among the disciples, 
the same, we suppose, which had 
been used by Peter and John in 
killing, preparing, and dividing the 
paschal lamb. One of these dis- 
ciples who had a machaira was 
Peter, a fact which we learn only 
from John (xviii. 10). He was 
warned by his Master not to use it 
in that w'av, and probably escaped 
unknown while Jesus was healmg 
the wound which had been inflicted. 
Was John heard to ask the question, 
1 Shall we smite with the machaira ( 
Or was he seen to draw, or to have 
such a weapon, and was he there- 



474 



MATTHEW XXVI. 



more than twelve legions of angels ? But how then shall the 54 
scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be ? In that same 55 



fore ' laid hold of so that he could 
escape only with the loss of his gar- 
ment? It was like John to inquire 
and wait for his Lord's reply (Luke 
ix. 51 - 56), and it was like "Peter to 
rush into action without waiting 
for advice. If such were the facts, 
then the narrative relating to ' a 
certain young man' (Mark xiv. 51, 
52), given after the general state- 
ment, ' they all forsook him and 
fled,' is a recurrence back, such as 
is ' natural and common in all nar- 
rative style,' to state what had 
happened to one of their number 
before they fled." 

Thus a careful review of the oc- 
casion and related facts does not, we 
think, authorize a departure from 
the primary meaning of the word 
machaira in these passages, by 
translating it sword. We have no 
reason to suppose that the disciples, 
in procuring the two which they 
possessed, had reference to anything 
further than the peaceful uses to 
which they might be applied. We 
may not be able to show why it was 
that Jesus should think it so im- 
portant for his disciples to have a 
knife of that sort after the supper. 
But that he did not mean to com- 
mand them to arm themselves with 
it as a weapon of war, is a supposi- 
tion consistent with the use of the 
word machaira, and with the uses 
to which the instrument itself was 
put ; while the other supposition, 
that he did mean to command them 
thus to arm themselves with it as a 
sword, is at variance with the gen- 
eral spirit of his life and his religion, 
and is directly contradicted by his 
words to Peter after he had so used 
it. 52, 53. Here Jesus 

contrasts the aid which comes from 
man's violence with that which 
may come from God. T/iinkest thou 
that I cannot now pray to my Father, 
and he shall presently give me more 
than twelve legions of angels ? A 
legion consisted of about 6,000. The 
language may be figurative ; but it 
seems to us "much more reasonable 
to suppose that it was intended to 



give us a glimpse into the vast 
economy of God's kingdom and the 
multitudes of the heavenly hosts 
who act as his spiritual agents. But 
always in our prayers for help, " Not 
as I will, but as thou wilt" must un- 
derlie our petitions. We must not 
ask for the intervention even of 
God's angels, except as it may be 
in accordance with his higher pur- 
poses. " The cup which my Father 
hath given me, shall I not drink 
it? " is given (John xviii. 11) as the 
qualifying clause here, where Peter 
is forbidden to use the weapon. In 
Matthew, however, 54, the same 
idea is conveyed by the words, " But 
how then shall the Scriptures be ful- 
filled, that thus it must be?" which 
are thus explained by Mr. Norton : 
" Your prophets and you have an- 
ticipated a great messenger from 
God ; what they and you have 
anticipated, I am ; but what is now 
taking place is necessary in order 
that I may fully sustain the charac- 
ter and perform the offices of such 
a messenger." Inver. 53 Jesus dis- 
tinctly implies his own free agency. 
It lies within his choice to live br 
die. And knoAving this, he cheer- 
fully bows to the higher purposes for 
which he had come into the world. 
The same idea is repeated in ver. 56, 
and brought out still more forcibly 
in John xii. 27. Jesus asserts man's 
freedom, but he quite as distinctly 
recognizes the overruling Provi- 
dence and all-pervading designs of 
the Divine mind. He asserts them 
both as facts, and shows how we 
practically are to act in regard to 
them, though he does not show on 
metaphysical grounds how the two 
are to be reconciled ; especially 
when the purposes of God have 
been revealed in prophecies which 
are to be fulfilled by men. Good 
men will choose to work for their 
fulfilment, and whatever bad men 
in their freedom may choose, their 
actions in the orderings of the 
Almighty and Omniscient mind will 
help on to the fulfilment of his pur- 
poses, as contrary winds, while they 



MATTHEW XXVI. 475 

hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye eome out as against 
a thief, with swords and staves, for to take me ? I sat daily 
with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me ; 

56 but all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets 
might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled. 

57 And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caia- 
phas the high-priest, where the scribes and the elders were 

5S assembled. But Peter followed him afar off, unto the high- 
priest's palace ; and went in, and sat with the servants to see 

59 the end. Now the chief priests and elders, and all the council, 

60 sought false witness against Josus, to put him to death. But 
found none ; yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found 

61 they none. At the last came two false witnesses, and said, 
This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and 

62 to build it in three days. And the high-priest arose, and said 
unto him, Answerest thou nothing ? what is it which these 

63 witness against thee ? But Jesus held his peace. And the 
high-priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee, by 
the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, 

64 the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said : nev- 
ertheless, I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see the Son of 
man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the 

65 clouds of heaven. Then the high-priest rent his clothes, say- 
ing, He hath spoken blasphemy ; what further need have we 
of witnesses ? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. 



are left to blow where they list, are of expression to say, that while 

by the art of man made to propel Jesus was in the room with the 

the ship on against their current, high-priest, Peter was down (koto) 

_.^-^7- to Caiaphas] " The i n the court. 64. sitting 

fpalace of the high-priest on t h e right hand of power, 

was situated between Millo and the an d coming in the clouds of 

Armory, on the northeastern slope heaven] These remarkable words 

of Mount Zion. As thus situated are intended to describe the power 

on the declivity, a story below the an d ma jestv of Christ as it shall 

chief suite of rooms was very nat- a t length appear, even to those who 

ural, and indeed almost una voida- now reject him. The words "Christ 

ble: and this circumstance enables * coming,' ' comino- in the clouds,' 

us the better to understand the & Cm not onlv indicate his advent at 

expression (Mark xiv.^66),^ Peter a f ar distant period, but also his 

was beneath in the av\fi" i. e. spiritual world-historical manifes- 

the court or hall. Barclay, p. 171. ration." Neander. 65. 

Without regard to this declivity, the Then the high-priest rent his 

court would be a few steps below clothes ] " They that judge a 

the floor of the surrounding rooms, blasphemer first ask the witness 

so that it would be a natural mode and bid him speak plainly what he 



476 



MATTHEW XXVI. 



What think ye ? They answered and said, He is guilty of 66 
death. Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him ; and 67 
others smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, Proph- 68 
esy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that smote thee ? 

Now Peter sat without in the palace. And a damsel came 69 
unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. But 70 
he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. 
And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw 71 
him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also 
with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied with an oath, I 72 
do not know the man. And after a while came unto him they 73 
that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou art also one of 
them, for thy speech bewrayeth thee. Then began he to curse 74 



hath heard ; and when he speaks it, 
the judges, standing on their feet, 
rend their garments and do not sew 
them up again." Lightfoot. Jose- 
phus, Jewish Wars, II. 15. 4. 



70. But he denied] We place 
the different accounts of Peter's 
denials side by side, that our read- 
ers may compare them : — 



FIRST DENIAL. 



MATTHEW. 

And Peter sat 
without in the hall, 
and a maid came to 
him, saying. " Thou 
also wast with Jesus 
of Galilee." But he 
denied before them 
all, saying, "I know 
not what thou say- 
est." And when he 
had gone out into 
the porch, 



MARK XIV. 

And as Peter was 
down in the hall, 
there cometh one 
of the maids of 
the high -priest ; and 
when she saw Peter 
warming himself, 
she looked upon him 
and said, " Thou 
also wast with Jesus 
theNazarene." But 
he denied, saying, 
" I know not, nei- 
ther understand I 
what thou sayest." 
And he went out 
into the porch, and 
the cock crew. 



luke xxn. 

And when they 
had kindled a fire in 
the midst of the hall, 
and were set down 
together, Peter sat 
down among them. 
But a certain maid 
beheld him as he sat 
by the fire, and ear- 
nestly looked upon 
him, and said, "This 
man was also with 
him." And he de- 
nied, saying, " Wo- 
man, I know him 
not." 



SECOND DENIAL. 



another damsel saw 
him, and saith to 
those who were 
there, " This one 
also was with Jesus 
theNazarene." And 
again he denied with 
an oath, " I do not 
know the man." 



And a maid saw 
him, and began to 
say to those stand- 
ing by, "This is one 
of them." But he 
again denied it. 



And after a short 
time another [mas- 
culine gender] saw 
him and said, "Thou 
art also of them." 
And Peter said, 
'■ Man, lam not." 



JOHN xvra. 

John, who was 
known to the high- 
priest, came into 
the hall, leaving Pe- 
ter at the gate with- 
out. John spoke to 
the maid who kept 
the gate, and she 
brought Peter in, 
i. e. to the hall. And 
she saith to Peter, 
" Art not thou also 
one of this man's dis- 
ciples? " He saith, 
" I am not." And 
the servants and offi- 
cers, having made 
a fire of coals be- 
cause it was cold, 
stood there warm- 
ing themselves, and 
Peter was with 
them, standing, and 
warming himself. 



They said, there- 
fore to him, '' Art 
not thou also one of 
his disciples ? " He 
denied it, and said, 
" I am not." 



MATTHEW XX VI. 



477 



and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately 
75 the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, 



THIRD DENIAL. 



MATTHEW. 
And after a while 
came unto him they 
that stood by, and 
said to Peter, " Sure- 
ly thou also art one 
of them ; for thy 
speech makes thee 
manifest. " Then 
began he to curse 
aud to swear, say- 
ing, "I know not 
the man." And im- 
mediately the cock 
crew. And Peter re- 
membered the word 
of Jesus which said 
unto him. " Before 
the cock crow : thou 
shalt deny me! 
thrice " And he] 
■went out and wept 
bitterly. 



And a little while 
after, they that 
stood by said again 
to Peter, ,; Surely 
thou art one of 
them ; for thou art 
aGalilEean*" [and thy 
speech agreeth there- 
to, is not in Tischen- 
dorfj. And he be- 
gan to curse and to 
swear, saying, " I 
know not this man 
of whom ye speak.'" 
And the second time 
a cock crew. And 
Peter called to mind 
the word that Jesus 
said unto him, " Be- 
fore the cock crow 
twice, thou shalt 
deny me thrice." 
And rushing out, he 
wept. 



At the first recognition and denial 
of Peter, all the Evangelists agree 
in stating that he was in the hall, 
and that lie was accosted by a maid. 
Her manner of speaking", though 
differing slightly in the words used, 
is substantially the same. The vari- 
ations are only such as we should 
expect to find" in the honest report 
of the same transaction by differ- 
ent witnesses. All the different ex- 
pressions here assigned by the dif- 
ferent writers to her and to him 
may have been used. She may 
have asked, as in John, " Art not 
thou also one of this man's dis- 
ciples ? " and when he answered, " I 
am not," she may have added, as in 
Matthew, " Surely thou wast with 
Jesus of Galilee'." When Peter 
denied, saying, " I know not what 
thou sayest," she may have repeated 
her assertion, with the slight varia- 
tion in Mark, " Thou surely wast 
"with Jesus the Xazarene; " and he 
would naturally meet the charge, 
thus repeated, with the still stronger 
denial, " I know not, neither under- 
stand I what thou sayest." Then 



One of the ser- 
vants of the high- 
priest (being his 
kinsman whose ear 
Peter cut off), saith 
to him, " Did not I 
see thee in the gar- 
den with him ? " 
Again, therefore, 
Peter denied ; and 
immediately a cock 
crew. 



And about the 
space of one hour 
after, another [-./.- 
*.<>?, masculine] con- 
fidently affirmed, 
saying, "Of a truth, 
this man also was 
with him ; for he is 
a Galilean." And 
Peter said " Man, I 
know not what thou 
sayest." And im- 
mediately, while he 
was yet speaking, 
the cock crew. And 
the Lord turned and 
looked at Peter, and 
Peter remembered 
the word of the 
Lord, how he had 
said unto him, "Be- 
fore the cock crow, 
thou shalt deny me 
thrice." And Peter 
went out and wept 
bitterly. 



the woman, looking earnestly at him, 
so as to satisfy herself that it was 
he, may have said, as in Luke, to 
those around her, " This man cer- 
tainly w r as with him;" and Peter 
in reply might say, " Woman, I 
know him not." All the expres- 
sions would thus belong to one act 
of recognition and denial. Such 
repeated assertions and denials are 
in themselves more probable than a 
single one, under the circumstances. 
Luke says that Peter was sitting by 
the fire ; John says that he was 
standing. Both the accounts may 
have been true, as nothing is more 
probable than that the parties should 
have changed their place and pos- 
ture during the altercation. At the 
second recognition and denial Mat- 
thew and Mark both speak of Peter 
as being in the porch or passage-way. 
Matt., 7rv\a>va, a gateway. Mark, 
irpoavkiov, which exactly describes 
the passage leading from the street to 
the hall. Luke and John say nothing 
of Peter's having left the hall. Ac- 
cording to Matthew and Mark, it was 



478 



MATTHEW XXVI. 



which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me 
thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly. 



a looman who recognized and spoke 
to him (" another maid," Matthew) ; 
according to Luke, it was a different 
person from the one who at first 
spoke to him, and a man. John, 
in using the plural number, " they 
said," intimates that the charge 
against Peter was made by more 
than one person, and thus authorizes 
us to suppose that both the other 
accounts are true, and that he was 
addressed both by a woman and a 
man. In the account of the third 
denial, no one of the writers tells 
where Peter was ; but it is not im- 
probable that, after he was dis- 
covered in the passage-way, he re- 
turned to the hall, and remained 
there during the considerable time 
(Luke says "about an hour") that 
intervened. Then those who were 
standing by (Matthew and Mark) 
recognized him by his Galilaean 
dialect. Luke says, that a different 

Eerson from the "one who spoke to 
im before, a man, charged him 
with being one of the party who 
had been with Jesus ; and John 
says, that a servant of the high- 
priest, the kinsman of him whose 
ear Peter cut off, said to him, " Did 
not I see thee in the garden with 
him? " There is no reason to sup- 
pose that this servant of the high- 
priest is the same person mentioned 
by Luke, especially as the plural 
number used by Matthew and Mark 
intimates that several persons were 
engaged in making the charge. 
Peter replied to them, one after 
another, growing more excited as 
the charge was repeated, till at 
length his loud and earnest impre- 
cations attracted the attention of 
Jesus, who was in a room- that 
was open towards the hall or 
court, and just after the cock crew 
turned and looked on Peter, who, 
thus reminded of the Loi'd's words, 
rushed out and wept bitterly. In 
this way the different accounts are 
perfectly harmonized, except for 
those who are " slavishly bound to 
the inspiration of the letter " We 
do not usually make sufficient al- 



lowance for what is left out in each 
of the Gospel narratives. We un- 
justly charge the Evangelists with 
contradicting one another, when in 
fact they are only giving different 
incidents connected with one com- 
mon event. In this instance we 
think of three distinct charges, each 
made by one person in a single 
shoi't sentence, and each replied to 
by Peter in one single expression 
of denial. But it is far more likely 
that each case of recognition would 
lead to a considerable altercation, in 
which the original charge would be 
repeated, as it would also be denied, 
in diffei-ent words, and that different 
persons as they recognized Peter 
would add their testimony to that 
already given. Each of theVritings, 
which are drawn from independent 
sources, and none of them giving 
an account of all the particulars, 
would be likely to bring out dif- 
ferent persons and expressions. 
Each one, therefore, may be regard- 
ed as supplying what is wanting in 
the others. By bringing together 
the different accounts in this way, 
we are able, at least in the case 
before us, to give a much more 
life-like and probable narrative of 
events than in the way which is 
usually adopted either by the friends 
or the enemies of the Gospels. The 
variations in the accounts show that 
the writers draw their statements 
from independent sources, and with 
such writers it must often happen 
that, in our ignorance of the details 
familiar to them, we may find it im- 
possible to reconcile, as we can in 
this case, incidents which did nev- 
ertheless truly occur. These ap- 
parent differences, says Alford, to 
whom we are indebted for impor- 
tant suggestions here, we value " as 
testimonies to independence : and 
are sure, that if for one moment 
we could be put in complete pos- 
session of all the details as they 
happened, each account would find 
its justification, and the reasons of 
all the variations would appear." 



MATTHEW XXVII. 479 



CHAPTER XXYII. 

PRELIMINARY TRIAL OF JESUS BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM. 

It is impossible even for the ablest scholars, with the 
scanty means of intormation which are now within their 
reach, to speak with any confidence concerning the precise 
forms of judicial proceeding which were held to be neces- 
sary among the Jews in a case like this. "From the time 
when Archelaus was deposed," A. D. 6 or 7, says Alford, 
" and Judaea became a Roman province, it would follow by 
the Roman law that the Jews lost the power of life and 
death." From Josephus (Ant. XX. 9. 1) it would appear 
that the high-priest had no right to assemble the Sanhe- 
drim in a capital case without permission from the Roman 
governor or Procurator. In Johnxviii. 31, the Jewish elders 
and high-priests say to Pilate, that they have no legal right 
to put any one to death. Still, in order to accomplish their 
designs against Jesus, it was important that the Sanhedrim 
should go through the customary forms of judicial investi- 
gation, and secure his condemnation before the highest Jew- 
ish tribunal, with such a weight of authority on their side 
that they might be able to extort from the Roman ruler the 
assent, without which their own judicial decisions could not 
be carried into effect. The examination at the house of the 
high-priest was only for the purpose of seeing what charges 
and witnesses could be used against him most effectively at 
his trial. 

When, therefore, the morning (npcolas — Mark xiii. 35 — ■ 
the watch of three hours which ended at six o'clock in the 
morning) had come, and the elders of the people, the high- 
priests, and scribes were gathered together, so as to form a 



480 MATTHEW XXVII. 3 - 10. 

legal Sanhedrim at their room in the vicinity of the temple, 
Jesus was taken up (Luke xxii. 66) from the house of 
Caiaphas to the council-chamber. It is not improbable 
that they had been in session for a considerable time, and 
had already determined on the course which they were to 
pursue, when Jesus was brought before them. Luke (xxii. 
66-71) is the only one of the Evangelists who gives any 
account of the proceedings here, which were little more than 
a repetition of what had already taken place, and resulted in 
a more formal act of condemnation. Being thus by the 
highest judicial tribunal of his own nation condemned to 
death, Jesus was bound and taken before Pilate. 

3-10. — Repentance and Death of Judas. 

This account is found only in Matthew. When Judas 
.saw Jesus condemned to death, and delivered over to the 
Roman power, he was smitten with sudden remorse, and 
brought back to the Jewish rulers the thirty pieces of money, 
with an acknowledgment of his guilt in his fatal treachery 
against innocent blood. But driven to desperation by their 
cold and contemptuous reply, he threw down the money in 
the midst of the temple, and went off and hanged himself, 
or was choked to death (strangled) by the intensity of his 
anguish. Many attempts have been made to reconcile this 
account of the death of Judas with that which is given in 
Acts i. 18. Matthew says, he "strangled himself," the 
natural meaning of which is, that he "hanged himself," 
though the words may possibly be construed as implying 
that he died of suffocation from the intensity of his emotions. 
In the Acts (i. 18) it is said, " falling headlong, he burst 
asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out." In the 
notes may be found some of the explanations by which com- 
mentators have tried to harmonize these two passages. No 
one of them seems to us perfectly satisfactory. We know 
too little of the circumstances and of the language used, to 



\ 



MATTHEW XXVII. 11-31. 481 

assert with confidence that the two accounts directly contra- 
dict one another, or that any explanation given is certainly 
the true one. The consultation among the priests, and the 
purchase of the potter's field, probably took place at a later 
period, and not on the day of the crucifixion. 

11-31. — Jesus before Pilate. v 

It is necessary to compare the Evangelists carefully with 
one another to get a clear and full account of these transac- 
tions. Matthew alone, 19, speaks of the message sent to 
Pilate by his wife, and of his washing his hands, 24, in 
token of his innocency. Luke alone (xxiii. 7-12) mentions 
the fact that Jesus was sent away to Herod. John (xix. 
1-13) enters more fully into the state of Pilate's mind, his 
conversations with Jesus, and his repeated efforts to induce 
the Jews to set him free. 

While it was yet early in the morning (John xviii. 28) 
Jesus was taken to the Proetorium, or hall of judgment, in 
the tower of Antonia, a little north of the temple, where he 
stood before the governor. This Prcetorium is the same as 
the hall (Mark xv. 16) or open court in the centre of the 
building, while in front of the palace was apparently a wide 
open space with a tessellated pavement, where Pilate on that 
day placed his judgment-seat (John xix. 13). The Jews 
on account of their religious scruples could not enter the 
court, lest it should make them unclean, and unfit for the 
feast. Pilate, therefore, several times during the trial passed 
back and forth between the Jews in front of the palace 
and Jesus, who, with the Roman soldiers, was in the Praeto- 
rium. Two or three times Jesus was taken out into the 
presence of the Jews. Bearing these things in mind, we 
may get a clear view of the transactions of the morning. 
Jesus is brought into the Praetorium (John xviii. 28-32). 
Pilate comes out and asks the chief priests and rulers what 
their accusation against him is ? They reply, " If he were 

41 BE 



482 MATTHEW XXVII. 11-31. 

not a malefactor, we should not have delivered him up 
unto thee." This vague form of accusation did not suit the 
Roman governor's ideas of a judicial trial, and he told them 
that they had better take him and condemn him according 
to their law. They said, in reply, what he undoubtedly 
knew perfectly all the time, that they had no legal authority 
to put any man to death. Then they began (Luke xxiii. 2) 
to accuse him of perverting the nation, of forbidding to give 
tribute to Caesar, and of making himself to be Christ a king, 
or an anointed king. Then Pilate went back into the 
Prsetorium, and had with Jesus the conversation which is 
most* fully recorded in John xviii. 33 - 38, — a conversation 
which evidently produced a very strong impression upon his 
mind. He then went out to the Jews, probably taking Jesus 
with him, to declare that he found no fault in him. And 
when they, growing more urgent, spoke of Jesus as begin- 
ning his work of insurrection in Galilee (Luke xxiii. 5 - 12), 
Pilate sent him to Herod, who probably occupied the mag- 
nificent palace built by Herod the Great, in the western part 
of the city, near the Tower of Hippicus. More than an 
hour probably intervened before Jesus was brought back 
to the Praetorium. Pilate then called the Jewish rulers 
together again, and after asserting that neither he nor Herod 
found any fault in Jesus, he proposed to set him free, since 
it had been his custom always to set some prisoner free at 
this festival. Just at this time, while he was sitting on the 
judgment-seat outside the palace, he received a message 
from his wife, warning him to have nothing to do " with that 
righteous man ; " " for," she said, " I have suffered many 
things this day in a dream, because of him." Her language 
shows that she must have known the reputation which Jesus 
had for purity and sanctity. Her message must have added 
to the perplexity and awe of Pilate. For dreams were re- 
garded by many of the Greeks and Romans as sent from 
the gods. The classical reader will call to mind the expres- 
sion of Homer, " for dreams are from Jupiter," and the 



MATTHEW XXVII. 32-61. 483 

warning dream by which Caesar's wife endeavored to keep 
him at home on the day when he was assassinated in the 
Capitol. Pilate redoubled his efforts to release Jesus. But 
the multitude had been already persuaded by the chief 
priests and elders, and only became the more clamorous for 
the blood of their victim. He then, to express in the 
strongest and most solemn terms his sense of the prisoner's 
innocence, took water and washed his hands before the mul- 
titude, saying, " I am innocent of the blood of this righteous 
man ; see ye to it." And all the people answered, " His 
blood be on us, and on our children ; " — an imprecation 
fearfully and terribly fulfilled in the manifold sufferings and 
slaughters which attended the destruction of Jerusalem be- 
fore that generation had passed away. Pilate now gave him 
up to his soldiers to scourge and mock him ; but even then 
(John xix. 4 — 12) he tried again and again to awaken their 
compassion. The majestic and mysterious bearing of his 
prisoner, the message from his wife, and the character of the 
charges against the prisoner created in him a sentiment of 
awe, and perhaps of superstitious fear. Whether any, how- 
ever distant, perception of the truth touched him, is not 
shown by either of the narratives. We have no right to 
judge him by the Christian standard, and condemn him be- 
cause he did not receive Christ as the Son of God. But we 
have a right to judge him by his own law, and to condemn 
him, because, in spite of the warnings and misgivings which 
he had, he weakly and wickedly, against his own convic- 
tions, consented to condemn the prisoner, in violation of the 
law by which he was to be judged. 

32-61. — The Crucifixion. 

We come now to the most solemn, the most affecting, 
the most significant and majestic event in the history of our 
race. Here is the deepest and most touching expression of 
God's love, stooping with infinite compassion to save man 



484 MATTHEW XXVII. C2-61. 

from sin and the misery consequent upon it. We shrink 
from interrupting the account by any critical remarks, and 
give the narrative as we find it in the four Evangelists, re- 
serving our comments for the notes at the end of the chapter. 

Jesus, being worn down by the sorrows and watchings of 
the night, and the indignities and sufferings to which he was 
subjected after his apprehension, especially the scourging 
which had just been administered, the cross was bound upon 
his shoulders, and a little before the third hour, or nine o'clock 
in the morning, he went bearing his own cross with pain, as 
the expression (John xix. 17) seems to intimate, towards a 
place called Golgotha. A man named Simon, a Cyrenian, 
who had come in from the country, having shown probably 
some marks of pity for the sufferer, was compelled to lift up 
the end of the cross, and, perhaps without materially light- 
ening the Saviour's burden, was made to share the insults 
and mockery that were heaped upon him. This Cyrenian, 
however, was not the only one who sympathized with him 
in his sorrows. In the midst of that scoffing multitude who 
were howling after him, and making him the butt of their 
impious jests, was a great number of people, especially of 
women, who were lamenting and bewailing him. Jesus 
turned towards them, and, thinking of the terrible ca- 
lamities which were to fall on them and their children 
(Luke xxiii. 28), he said, " Daughters of Jerusalem ! weep 
not for me ; but weep for yourselves and for your children." 

In a short time their mournful journey was finished, and 
they reached the spot whose name must always be sacred in 
the thoughts and affections of the Christian world. There 
they crucified him, having previously stripped him of his 
garments and offered him a stupefying potion, which, when 
he had tasted it, he refused to drink. Either at the moment 
when they were driving the nails through his hands and his 
feet, or at the moment of excruciating anguish when the 
cross, with his body nailed to it, reaching an upright position, 
sunk down with a shock into the hole prepared for it in the 



MATTHEW XXVII. 32 - 61. 485 

earth, the sharp and sudden agony wrenched from him, as 
in a shriek, the cry, his first utterance on the cross, " Father ! 
forgive them ; for they know not what they are doing." 
Now the cruel and blasphemous acts of mockery and scorn 
were renewed, Jewish priests and Roman soldiers, rulers 
and people alike, wagging their heads as they passed by, 
and scoffing at him and his sufferings. Even one of the two 
malefactors who were crucified with him, one on either side, 
joined in the revilings, and said scoffing (Luke xxiii. 39), 
" If thou art the Christ, save thyself and us." But the other, 
subdued by what he had seen of divine benignity in Jesus, 
after rebuking his companion, said to Jesus, " Remember 
me, when thou comest in thy kingdom." Jesus, moved with 
compassion towards him, said, and this was his second ut- 
terance on the cross, " Verily I say unto thee, To-day 
shalt thou be with me in paradise." 

The long hours of torture passed. Near the cross where 
he hung helpless and submissive in his agony stood (John 
xix. 25) Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her sister, and 
Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When 
Jesus, therefore, saw his mother and the disciple whom he 
loved standing by her, he said to his mother (this was his 
third utterance on the cross), " Woman, behold thy son," 
and to the disciple, " Behold thy mother." " Everything 
which she had experienced in the happiest part of her life 
had now become darkened to her ; doubts agitated her," 
and unable to bear longer a sight so full of anguish, which, 
turning her hopes into despair, pierced as a sword through 
her soul, she allowed herself to be taken away, " and from 
that hour the disciple took her to his own home." 

It was noonday, when darkness overspread all the land, 
and continued for three hours. The sufferings on the cross 
now reached their sharpest and most dreadful extremity. 
There is no record of any word that was spoken, or of any 
act or sound to break the terrible stillness of the scene. For 
three hours forward from that awful moment when at 

41* 



486 MATTHEW XXVII. 32-61. 

noonday the unearthly darkness began, so far as we can 
learn, " not a word of derision is heard all around the cross. 
All is hushed into absolute silence." The angry passions of 
men subside. They gaze through the darkness in fear and 
wonder. " Jesus is silent : the sufferings he endured at the 
hands of men now give place to more painful inward suffer- 
ings. The darkening of the heavens accompanies and ex- 
presses the dreadful darkness that prevails in the soul itself 
of the suffering Saviour," when those around are suddenly 
startled by the agonizing cry, " My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me ? " But why this cry as of utter desolation 
and despair? How could God leave his beloved Son so 
unsustained in the moment of his keenest anguish? It is 
not for us to comprehend all the wonders and mysteries of 
the Divine mercy in the great work of our redemption. The 
sufferings of the righteous at all times, but most of all the 
sufferings of the Son of God, in their relation to the sins of 
the world, are, so far as we are concerned, among the secret 
things of the Most High. They have indeed a most affect- 
ing significance. They show the personal sympathy of 
Jesus with the keenest pangs of conflict, or of pain and 
despair, that can ever rend our hearts, and indicate to us 
how we, through the victory which he has gained, may 
triumph over them. But we cannot tell how far his suf- 
ferings were essential to our salvation in their influence on 
the counsels of God. The mighty train of causes and effects 
in God's spiritual kingdom, reaching up through the highest 
heavens and down through all the depths of sin and its 
attendant sorrows, must be involved in mystery to us. We 
cannot comprehend in all the fulness of their meaning these 
highest moments in God's dealings with man, when in the 
hidings of his power he is bringing to a crisis those vast 
designs, which, in working out the redemption of our race, 
reach, we know not how far, into the infinite realms of being. 
Such a moment it was that heard from the cross the cry of 
anguish and desolation which has pierced the heart of the 
world, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " 



MATTHEW XXVII. 32-61. 487 

These words of Jesus, his fourth utterance upon the cross, 
were misunderstood by those around him. But there were 
no marks of levity or contempt. It would seem as if even 
those who came to scoff at his sufferings had been subdued, 
or at least silenced, by the solemnity of the scene. Imme- 
diately afterwards Jesus, moved by what is said to be the 
severest physical suffering of those who die by that painful 
death, said, " I thirst." A sponge filled with vinegar was 
raised to his mouth, and when he had received it, he said, 
" It is finished." The great work which he came into the 
world to accomplish was now done. He had drained to its 
dregs the cup which his Father had given him to drink. 
The agony was over. And with his seventh and last utter- 
ance, " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," he 
bowed his head and gave up the ghost. " And, behold, the 
veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the 
bottom ; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent ; and 
the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which 
slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrec- 
tion." And " when the centurion, and they that were with 
him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake and those things 
that were done, they feared greatly, and said, ' Truly this was 
a son of God'" (literally, ' a God's son'). " Certainly, this 
was a righteous man." And all the multitudes who had 
come out with angry and revengeful feelings, demanding his 
life, and making a mock of his sufferings, when they saw 
the things which had come to pass (Luke xxiii. 48), smote 
their breasts and turned sorrowfully away from what their 
own malice or excited passions had helped to accomplish. 
Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, went hastily to Pilate, and 
begged the body of Jesus. He then, with the assistance of 
Nicodemus, who brought about a hundred pounds of a mix- 
ture of myrrh and aloes (John xix. 39), prepared the body 
for burial, and interred it in his own new sepulchre, which 
he had hewn out in a garden adjoining the spot where Jesus 
had been crucified. And the women who had come from 






488 MATTHEW XXVII. 62 - G6. 

Galilee, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, were there, 
over against the sepulchre, seeing the tomb and how the 
body was laid. " And now in the tomb lay the holiest being 
the earth had ever seen — dead, — a terrible symbol of the 
universal death of man, — an image of utter, remediless 
despair, — a scene to darken the earth. Then the powers 
of darkness seemed to have triumphed. Selfish ambition, 
cruelty, rage, hate, still remained on the earth ; but the Holy 
One was gone from it. Then might the powers of darkness 
have looked out from the clouds, and proclaimed, ' It is the 
hour of our triumph ; henceforth the earth is ours.' " E. 
Peabody. 

62-66. — Precautions against his Resurrection. 

There is a little difficulty in this passage. If the Apostles 
so utterly failed to understand the words of Jesus that they 
had no expectation of his resurrection, how could his enemies 
have had any such idea in their minds ? The words an- 
nouncing his resurrection after three days, had been spoken 
by him, and repeated by his disciples. The greatness of 
the fact foretold prevented their understanding the plain and 
literal meaning of the words they had heard and reported. 
But when the priests and rulers saw that the body of Jesus 
was in the hands of his friends, they recalled to mind these 
words, and seeing what their obvious and literal meaning 
was, they, with the keenness of religious bigots, suspected 
some trick on the part of the disciples, and therefore applied 
to the governor to allow them to take the precautions which 
would render any such imposition as they feared impractica- 
ble. The stone, therefore, was sealed, and a guard was set. 
But the very precautions which they had taken turned 
against them. The very measures which they had adopted 
to expose the cheat which they suspected, served only to 
confirm the truth, against which they had set themselves. 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



489 



NOTES. 

When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders 
of the people took counsel against Jesus, to put him to death. 

2 And when they had bound him, the)' led him away and de- 
livered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. 

3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he 
was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty 

4 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have 
sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they 

5 said, AVhat is that to us ? see thou to that. And he cast down 
the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and 

6 hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver 



2. and delivered him to 
Pontius Pilate the govern- 
or] Very little is known of Pilate 
beyond what we find in the Gos- 
pels. He was not properly gov- 
ernor of Judaea, but only the Pro- 
curator or deputy-governor, and 
was subject to the Proconsul of 
Syria, who resided at Caesarea. In 
the thirteenth year of Tiberius, 
A. D. 26, he came to Judaea as the 
successor of Valerius (iratus. Jo- 
sephus, Ant. XVIII. 2. 2. He is bare- 
ly mentioned by Tacitus as Procu- 
rator when Christ was punished. 
(Ann. XV. 44.) Josephus speaks of 
him, Ant. XVIII. 3. 1, in a way that 
shows the weakness of his charac- 
ter, and afterwards, in that and the 
following chapters, he speaks of 
him as engaged in transactions 
which indicate the timidity and 
rashness, the sensibility and cru- 
elty, which are not unfrequently 
combined in the same person. 
After having been in Judaea ten 
years he was sent to Eome by 
Vitellius, governor of Syria, to an- 
swer for his conduct to the Emperor 
Tiberius, but that crafty and malig- 
nant tyrant was dead before he 
reached Rome. According to Euse- 
bius (Hist. Eccl. II. 7), the tradition 
was that in the reign of Caligula 
Pilate fell into such misfortunes 
that he " from necessity destroyed 
himself, and with his own hand be- 



came the avenger, as it seemed, of 
the divine justice which at no dis- 
tant interval followed after him." 

4. have betrayed the in- 
nocent blood] This means, not 
merely that he had betrayed an in- 
nocent man, but that he had betrayed 
him to death. What is that' to 
us? see thou to that.] Nothing 
could be more cool and contemptu- 
ous. They had used the traitor, and 
now had nothing more to do with him. 
His guilt and anguish were his con- 
cern, not theirs. The fewness of the 
words that they were willing to 
spend upon him added to the fatal 
poignancy of their sting. 5. 

And he cast down the pieces 
of silver in the temple] e» tw 
vaca. This word does not apply to 
the temple enclosures, but to the 
holy temple itself, into which none 
but the priests were permitted to 
enter. It is then an indication of 
the utter confusion and desperation 
into which the mind of Judas was 
thrown, that he should rush in there 
to throw down from his guilty hands 
the price of blood. and 

went and hanged himself] 
Alford, in his commentarv on Acts 
i. 18, says: "It is obvious that, 
while the general term used by 
Matthew points mainly at self- 
murder, the account given here [in 
Acts] does not preclude the catas- 



490 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the 
treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took 7 
counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury 



trophe related having happened, in 
some way, as a Divine judgment, 
during the suicidal attempt. Further 
than this, with our present knowl- 
edge, we cannot go. An accurate 
acquaintance with the actual circum- 
stances would account for the dis- 
crepancy, but nothing else." Ols- 
hausen/ after speaking with sever- 
ity of the forced interpretations by 
which the two passages have been 
reconciled, adds : " Yet we must 
confess that the accounts may be so 
connected as to permit the conjec- 
ture that Judas hanged himself, and, 
falling down, Avas so injured that his 
bowels gushed out." Prof. Hackett, 
whose learning and candor cannot 
easily be called in question, adopts 
this conjecture as not unreasonable. 
In his t; Illustrations of Scripture," 
pp. 266, 267, he says: " We have no 
certain knowledge as to the mode in 
which we are to combine the two 
statements, so as to connect the act 
of suicide with what happened to 
the body. Interpreters have sug- 
gested that Judas may have hung 
himself on a tree near a precipice 
over the valley of Hinnom, and that, 
the limb or rope breaking, he fell 
to the bottom, and was dashed to 
pieces by the fall. For myself, I 
felt, as I stood in the valley, and 
looked up to the rocky terraces 
which hang over it, that the pro- 
posed explanation was a perfectly 

natural one I measured the 

precipitous, almost perpendicular 
walls, in different places, and found 
the height to be, variously, forty, 
thirty-six, thirty-three, thirty, and 
twenty-five feet. Olive-trees still 
grow quite near the edge of these 
rocks, and, no doubt, in former 
times they were still more numer- 
ous in the same place. A rocky 
pavement exists also at the bottom 
of the precipices; and hence, on 
that account, too, a person who 
should fall from above -\vonld be lia- 
ble to be crushed and mangled, as 
well as killed. The traitor may 



have struck, in his fall, upon some 
pointed rock, which entered the 
body, and caused his bowels to 
gush out." Lightfoot's summary 
method of dealing with the matter 
may interest rather than instruct 
the reader. "Interpreters," says 
he, " take • a great deal of pains to 
make these words agree with his 
hanging himself; but, indeed, all 
will not do. I know the word 
aTrrjy^aro is commonly applied to 
a man's hanging himself, but not to 
exclude some other way of stran- 
gling. And I cannot but take the 
story (with good leave of antiquity) 
in this sense: After Judas had 
thrown down the money, the price 
of his treason, in the temple, and 
was now returning again to his 
mates, the devil, who dwelt in 
him, caught him up on high, stran- 
gled him, and threw him down 
headlong, so that, dashing upon the 

ground, he burst in the midst 

This agrees very well with the 
deserts of the wicked wretch, and 
with the title of Iscariot [i. e. one 
who perished by strangling]. The 
wickedness he had committed was 
above all example ; and the punish- 
ment- he suffered was beyond all 
precedent." 6. into the 

treasury] " Kopftavas is the sacred 
treasure of the temple, which was 
kept in seven chests, called trum- 
pets. Comp. Mark vii. 11." 01s- 
hausen. 7. to bury 

strangers in] Not foreigners, but 
Jews who were strangers there. 

the potter's field] " The 
Aceldama, or field of blood, which 
was purchased with his money, 
tradition has placed on the Hill of 
Evil Council. It may have been in 
that quarter, at least, for the field 
belonged originally to a potter, and 
argillaceous clay' is still found in 
the neighborhood. A workman in 
a pottery which I visited at Jerusa- 
lem said that all tlieir clay was 
obtained from the hill over the val- 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



491 



8 strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of 

9 blood, unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was 
spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, " And they took the 
thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom 

10 they of the children of Israel did value, and gave tneiu lor the 

potter's field, as the Lord appointed me." 
n And Jesus stood before the governor ; and the governor 

asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews ? And Jesus 

12 said unto him, Thou sayest. And when he was accused of 

13 the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then saith 
Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they wit- 

14 ness against thee ? And he answered him to never a word ; 

15 insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly. Now at that 
feast, the governor was wont to release unto the people a pris- 

16 oner, whom they would. And they had then a notable pris- 
16 oner, called Barabbas. Therefore; when they were gathered 

together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release 

18 unto you ? Barabbas, or Jesus, which is called Christ ? For 

19 he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he 



lev of Hinnom." Hackett's 111. of 
Scrip., p. 267. 8. The 

field of blood, unto this day] 

This indicates that the Gospel was 
written a considerable time after- 
wards. Matthew says it was called 
" the field of blood ""because it had 
been bought with the price of blood; 
while in Acts it is said to have been 
so called on account of the wretch- 
ed death of Judas, — not a contra- 
dictory, " but a concurrent reason, 
showing that the ill-omened name 
could be used with a double em- 
phasis." 9. Then was 
fulfilled that Avhich was spo- 
ken by Jeremy the prophet] 
No such passage as the one here 
quoted is to be found in Jeremiah. 
A passage, not identical, but bear- 
ing a stronsc resemblance to it, is 
found in Zechariah xi. 13, 14. 
How is this to be accounted for? 
" The simplest sohition of the 
difficulty." says Olshausen, " is to 
suppose that the Evangelist mistook 
the name of the prophet, or that 
the earliest transcribers might have 
read some contraction for the name 



falsely ; or perhaps that there was no 
name at all there at first, and that 
some transcriber supplied its want 
erroneously." The passage in Zech- 
ariah, very different from that which 
is here quoted, is thus rendered by 
Dr. Noyes : " And they weighed for 
my wages thirty shekels of silver. 
And Jehovah said to me, Cast it into 
the treasury, the goodly price at 
which I was valued by them. And 
I took the thirty shekels of silver, 
and cast them into the house of 
Jehovah, into the treasury." It is 
impossible for us to see in this ac- 
count anything more than an inci- 
dental similarity to some of the 
facts connected with the treachery 
of Judas. It can in no sense be re- 
garded as a prophecy of the events 
described by Matthew. 16, 

17. According to Tischendorf, these 
verses should read thus : " And they 
had then a notable prisoner, called 
Jesus Barabbas. Therefore, when 
thev were gathered together, Pilate 
said unto them, " Which shall I re- 
lease unto you, Jesus Barabbas, or 
Jesus who is called Christ?" The 



492 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



was set down on the judgment-seat, his wife sent unto him, 
saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man ; for I 
have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. 

But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude 20 

that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The 21 
governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the 
twain will ye that I release unto you ? They said, Barabbas. 
Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus, 22 
which is called Christ ? They all say unto him, Let him be 
crucified. And the governor said, Why ? what evil hath he 23 
done ? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be cru- 
cified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but 24 
that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his 
hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood 
of this just person ; see ye to it. Then answered all the peo- 25 
pie, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. Then 26 
released he Barabbas unto them ; and when he had scourged 



best critics, however, do not approve 
of this as the true reading. 19. 

when he was set down on the 
judgment-seat] This judgment- 
seat (John xix. 13) was outside of 
the palace or fortress, on the pave- 
ment. The tower or fortress of An- 
tonia, where Pilate sat in judgment, 
was situated on the north side of 
the grounds occupied by the temple, 
and took up a space nearly or quite 
as large as that which was set apart, 
within the sacred enclosures, for 
the temple. . The Antonia enclosure 
measured, south, 975 feet; east, 710; 
north, 1030; west, 730. Barclav. 
p. 245. 23. Let him be 

crucified] This punishment was 
chiefly inflicted on slaves and the 
worst kind of malefactors. (Juv. VI. 
219; Hor. Sat. I. 3. 82.) The crim- 
inal, after sentence pronounced, car- 
ried his cross to the place of execu- 
tion; a custom mentioned by Plu- 
tarch (De Tard. Dei Vind'.) and 
Artemidorus (Oneir. II. 61) as well 
as in the Gospels. From Livy 
(XXXIII. 36) and Valerius Maximus 
(I. 7) scourging appears to have 
formed a part of this as of other 
capital punishments among the Ro- 
mans. The scourging of our Sav- 
iour, however, is not to be regarded 



in this light, for it was inflicted be- 
fore the sentence was pronounced, 
and was done by Pilate with the 
hope of thus satisfying the ven- 
geance of the Jews without the cru- 
cifixion which they had demanded. 
The criminal was next stripped of 
his clothes, and nailed or bound to 
the cross. The latter was the more 
painful method, as the sufferer was 
left to die of hunger. The body 
was not supported by the nails, but 
by a piece of wood which passed 
between the legs. Instances are 
recorded of persons who' survived 
nine days. Smith's Greek and Ro- 
man Ant. 24. he took 
water, and washed his hands] 
" The washing of hands, to betoken 
innocence from blood-guiltiness, is 
prescribed Dent. xxi. 6-9, and 
Pilate uses it here as intelligible to 
the Jews." Alford. Pilate, having 
now resided in Judaea seven years, 
must have become well acquainted 
with Jewish customs. 26. 
Then released he Barabbas] 
" One who was moreover guilty of 
that very crime (treason) of which 
Jesus was accused ; nay, even guilty 
of a worse crime. However, it was 
by the death of Him who was the 
Just One, that those very persons 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



403 



27 Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers 

of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered 

28 unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, 

29 and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a 
crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his 
right hand ; and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked 

30 him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews ! And they spit upon 

31 him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after 
that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, 
and put his own raiment on him ; and led him away to cru- 
cify him. 

32 And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon 



who had deserved death are set 
free." Bengel. and when 

he had scourged Jesus, he de- 
livered him to he crucified] 

This passage may be taken as a 
specimen of the manner in which 
events, which Avere in fact sepa- 
rated by intervening incidents, are 
brought together in a condensed 
narrative, as if one had grown im- 
mediately out of the other. Be- 
tween tne scourging of Jesus and 
his being given up to be crucified, 
accoi-ding to John xix. 4 - 16, Pilate 
had a private interview with Jesus, 
and more than once tried to per- 
suade the Jews to release him. 

27. the whole band] 
o-n-elpav, a cohort, the tenth part of 
a legion, about 600. The word 
whole is not to be pressed. Alford. 
28. a scarlet robe] Mark 
(xv. 17) and John (xix. 2) say pur- 
ple. The two words were probably 
used indiscriminately to express the 
color adapted to royalty. In Rev. 
xvii. 4, the two words are used to- 
gether. " And the woman was ar- 
rayed in purple and scarlet color " 

29. a crown of thorns] 
" The acanthus itself," says Alford, 
" with its large succulent leaves, is 
singularly unfit for such a purpose ; 
as is the plant with very long sharp 
thorns, commonly known as Soma 
Christi, being a brittle acacia. Some 
flexile shrub or plant must be under- 
stood. Hasselquist, a SAvedish nat- 
uralist, supposes a very common 
plant, naba or nubka of the Arabs, 
42 



with many small and sharp spines ; 
soft, round, and pliant branches; 
leaves much resembling ivy, of a 
very deep green, as if in designed 
mockery of a victor's wreath." 

and mocked him] This 
mockery and personal abuse were 
three times inflicted: 1. at the ex- 
amination before the Sanhedrim 
(xxvi. 67); 2. when he was sent to 
Herod (Luke xxiii. 11); and, 3. here 
by the Roman soldiers. 
32. " Jesus is led towards Golgotha. 
St. Matthew gives the outline only: 
T/n-y J'uund a man of Cyrene, Simon 
byname: him they compelled to bear 
his ovss. St. Mark (xv. 21) adds 
to this a word Avhich seems to put 
the living scene before your eyes : a 
man ivho was passing by (that very 
place); and then a particular cir- 
cumstance Avhich St. Luke (xxiii. 
26) adopts from him : coming out of 
the country; finally, another also, 
which is mentioned by none but St. 
Mark, and bears upon the person of 
this Cyrenian: he was the father of 
Alexander and Rufus, men in Mark's 
time AA'ell knoAvn in the Church, and 
particularly in that of Rome. We 
are not, however, so to understand 
the matter, as if the cross were 
taken off our Lord's shoulders and 
transferred to those of this Simon; 
much less, as Ave see it sometimes 
represented in Bible prints and pic- 
tures, as if the men Avho were 
leading aAvay Jesus, on seeing him 
sink under the Aveight, had there- 
fore thought of laying it on Simon 



494 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



by name : him they compelled to bear his cross. And when 33 
they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a 



as he was passing by. The im- 
probability of this will be per- 
ceived at once, by attending to the 
circumstance, that among the Ro- 
mans the cross was ordinarily fas- 
tened to the shoulders of the con- 
demned person, and could not, ac- 
cordingly, have been first unloosed 
by the soldiers, as this supposition 
requires. No! the Saviour's cross 
was taken off his shoulders by no 
one. But the soldiers must in irony 
have compelled Simon, who in pass- 
ing had expressed his compassion 
for the adorable sufferer, to lift the 
cross, and (as St. Luke expresses it) 
to bear it after him. Thus Simon 
presents us here with an image of 
the true disciple of our Lord, shar- 
ing in his cross and in his igno- 
miny. In perfect accordance with 
this we find the expressive state- 
ment of St. John xix. 17: Jesus, 
bearing with pain (/3aaTa£a)i>) his 
cross, went forth, &c." Da Costa's 
Four Witnesses, pp. 414, 415. It may 
have been, nevertheless, that Jesus, 
bearing his cross with pain, sunk 
beneath it by the way, and that it 
was then taken from him and put on 
Simon, though we prefer Da Costa's 
view. 33. And when 

they were come to a place 
called Golgotha, that is to 
say, a place of a skull] Cra- 
nium. Luke, xxiii. 33, says: " And 
when they were come to the place 
which is called Cranium" not Cal- 
vary. Kpaviov is the Greek word, 
meaning a skull, and Calvary is 
formed from the con-esponding Latin 
word, Calvaria. The term was prob- 
ably given in consequence of some 
natural feature of the place resem- 



been seriously questioned whether 
this was really the place where 
Jesus was crucified. Dr. Robinson 
has shown, we think, quite conclu- 
sively that the site of the Church of 
the Holy Sepulchre lies within the 
space which was enclosed by the 
walls of Jerusalem at the time of 
the Crucifixion, and it is admitted 
on all hands that no public execu- 
tion would at that time have been 
allowed within the city walls. Dr. 
Robinson has also shown that there 
is no historical testimony on the 
subject which is to be relied upon 
now, and that there was none when 
the church was erected, three hun- 
dred years after the crucifixion. 
Stanley, in his able and scholarly 
work on Palestine, admits the force 
of the objection to the historical 
testimony, but does not think Dr. 
Robinson's view of the topographi- 
cal question wholly free from diffi- 
culties. Barclay, in his City of the 
Great King, adopts Dr. Robinson's 
view, and supports it with great 
earnestness, though with no addi- 
tional arguments which are entitled 
to much weight. He even goes so 
far as to suggest as the scene of the 
crucifixion a spot lying nearly in 
the opposite direction from the judg- 
ment-hall. After speaking of the 
name Cranium, as being applicable 
not only to the head of an animal, 
but equally so to a head or cape of 
land, in which we find him sus- 
tained by the authority of Tischen- 
dorf, he adds, p. 79: "'Now there is 
a kind of head, cape, or promontory 
of land projecting southeastwardly 
into the Kedron valley, a short dis- 
tance above Gethsemane, to which 
such a term seems quite applicable, 



bling a skull, rather than because i U st as the low spur of Lebanon on 
,t i j r— \ ?_i t>i,~ u n • i t»--:*j. „ — i~ „„ii^,i r<ov,/» 



► 



the place was used for burial. The 
situation of the place is unknown. 
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 
which is five or six hundred yards, 
in a direction nearly west, from the 
northern extremity of Mt. Moriah, 
was built by order of the Emperor 
Constantine, and dedicated A. D. 
335, to commemorate the spot. It has 



which Beirut reposes is called Cape 
or Head of Beirut. May not this 
similar spur of an unnamed ridge be 
the site of that awful scene, — the 
crucifixion of the Son of God?" 
This may have been the spot, but 
the arguments adduced by Barclay 
are not sufficient to prove it. Nor 
do we attach any great importance 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



495 



34 place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with 
gall; and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. 

35 And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots ; 
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, 
" They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture 

36 did they cast lots." And sitting down, they watched him there ; 

37 and set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS 



to the question. The grave of Moses 
was unknown, in order that the peo- 
ple might never have an opportuni- 
ty to indulge their idolatrous pro- 
pensity by any superstitious observ- 
ances connected with it. In the 
writers of the New Testament we 
find nowhere the slightest mark of 
veneration for the places connected 
with our Saviour's life. They had 
imbibed too much of the spirit of 
him to whom Jerusalem and Geri- 
zhn were alike unimportant as 
places of worship, to dwell with 
reverence on things so purely exter- 
nal. It was not till the spiritual life 
which he came to awaken and im- 
part bad begun to mingle with baser 
elements, and the worship of the 
Father " in spirit and in truth " had 
been alloyed by something very like 
idolatrous ingredients, that the pas- 
sion for relics and sacred places 
was excited in the Chui'ch, and 
pilgrimages began to be performed, 
and idolatrous substitutes for a 
devout and holy life began to exer- 
cise their degrading and demoraliz- 
ing influence on the souls of men. 
Still there is a reasonable curiosity 
in such matters ; and there are as- 
sociations which ought not to be 
disregarded. No true follower of 
Christ could visit the scenes of his 
earthly ministry, — Nazareth, the 
Lake of Tiberias, the hills of Gali- 
lee, the banks of the Jordan, or the 
Mount of Olives, — without strong 
emotion. We even agree with Stan- 
ley, when he says, " Granting to the 
full the doubts which must always 
hang over the highest claims of 
the Church of the Sepulchre, no 
thoughtful man can look unmoved 
on what has from the time of Con- 
stantine been revered by the larger 
part of the Christian world as the 



scene of the greatest events of 
the world's history." Wherever 
the place was situated, the name of 
Calvary can never lose its pow- 
er with the followers of Christ. 
Among the traditions respecting 
Golgotha is one that Adam, or at 
least Adam's skull, Was buried 
there, and the precise spot is still 
pointed out and believed in as the 
" entombment of Adam's head " ! 

34. they gave him 
vinegar to drink, mingled 
with gall] Just before crucifix- 
ion the Romans were accustomed 
to give to the convicts a stupefying 
drink, wine mingled with myrrh, in 
order to deaden their sensibility to 
the awful agonies of this dreadful 
punishment. Mark (xv. 23) says 
loine mingled icith myrrh ; Matthew, 
vinegar mingled with gall. But vine- 
gar was nothing else than the com- 
mon sour wine, and the word gall 
was used to denote bitters of any 
kind. " They gave me also gall 
for my meat; and in my thirst they 
gave me vinegar to drink." (Ps. 
lxix. 21.) It was undoubtedly in- 
tended by the Romans as an act of 
mercy, yet it was here administered 
in an insulting way. " And the 
soldiers also mocked him, coming 
to him, and offering him vinegar." 
(Luke xxiii. 36.) When Jesus had 
tasted it, he refused to drink, for 
" he did not wish to meet death 
otherwise than in the full posses- 
sion of his consciousness." 

35. that it might he ful- 
filled] These words, and what fol- 
low in this verse, are not found in 
the best manuscripts. They were 
probably copied in here by tran- 
scribers from John xix. 24. 
37. And set up over his head 
his accusation written, This 



496 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then were there 38 
two thieves crucified with him ; one on the right hand, and 

another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, 39 

wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the 40 
temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself; if thou be 
the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the 41 
chief priests, mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, 
He saved others, himself he cannot save ; if he be the King 42 
of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will 
believe him. He trusted in God ; let him deliver him now, 43 



is Jesus the King of the 

Jews] In Mark it is, The King 
of the Jews; in Luke, The King 
of the Jews this; in John, Jesus 
of Nazareth, the King of the 
Jews. " On the difference in the 
four Gospels as to the words of 
the inscription itself it is hardly 
worth while to comment, except to 
remark that the advocates for the 
verbal and literal exactness of each 
Gospel may here find an undoubted 
example of the absurdity of their 
view, which may serve to guide 
them in less plain and obvious 
cases. A title was written, con- 
taining certain words; not four 
titles, all different, but one, differ- 
ing probably from all of these four, 
but certainly from three of them." 
Alford. Da Costa, Avho holds to 
a literal or verbal exactness, ex- 
plains the differences thus. Ac- 
cording to John xix. 20, the super- 
scription was written in Hebrew, 
Greek, and Latin. It may therefore 
have been written with variations, 
and each of the Evangelists may 
have given it according to the lan- 
guage and the form best suited to his 
own plan or style. In St. Luke, he 
says, it is probably the Latin super- 
scription; in St. Mark, the Hebrew, 
while St. John gives it to us in the 
fullest form, which is the Greek, 
and " St. Matthew gives us a hind of 
combination." What is this " kind 
of combination," but a giving up of 
the literal and verbal exactness? 

40. save thyself. 42. He 
saved others % himself he can- 
not save] -The word Jesus means 
/Saviour; and it has been supposed 



that here in the original Hebrew or 
Aramaic was a taunting play upon 
the Saviour's name. 
39. And they that passed by 
reviled him, wagging their 
heads] 41. " Likewise also the chief 
jjriests, mocking him, with the scribes 
and elders, said,'" 43, " He trusted 
in God ; let him deliver him now if 
he will have him ; for he said, I am 
the Son of God." The correspond- 
ence between this and the seventh 
and eighth verses of the twenty- 
second Psalm is very remarkable. 
" All that see me laugh me to scorn : 
they shoot out the lip, they shake 
the head, saying. He trusted on the 
Lord that he would deliver him : let 
him deliver him, seeing he delighted 
in him." In this Psalm are the 
other expressions : " My God, my 
God, why hast thou forsaken me? " 
" They pierced my hands and my 
feet." " They part my garments 
among them, and cast lots upon my 
vesture." Are these accidental co- 
incidences, or were they thrown in 
through the superintending and pro- 
phetic spirit of God, that they might 
associate themselves with the scene 
upon the cross as a prediction of 
that event in some of its minute par- 
ticulars? Undoubtedly the Psalm, 
as Dr. Noyes says, is one in which 
a pious Israelite makes his suppli- 
cation to God in the midst of great 
distress, and enumerates the cir- 
cumstances which aggravate his 
distress, and the faith by which he 
may triumph over it. But may it 
not also be in some of its parts a 
type of the sufferings of Christ? 
To this question we would apply 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



407 



44 if he will have him ; for he said, I am the Son of God. The 
thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his 

45 teeth. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over 

46 all the land, unto the ninth hour. And ibout the ninth hour 



the remarks of Dr. Noyes. " As to 
the typical or mystical sense which 
has been assigned to this and other 
psalms, it seems to be beyond the 
province of the interpreter. There 
are no human means by which to 
ascertain it. None but the Divine 
Spirit can be sure what it is. As 
has been well observed by Ernesti, 
in his Principles of Biblical Inter- 
pretation, — ' Nor, in searching for 
this typical sense, is there need of 
the care and talents of an inter- 
preter. For it is revealed by the 
information and testimony of the 
Holy Spirit, beyond whose showing 
we should not in this matter at- 
tempt to advance.' " 44. 
The thieves also Avhich were 
crucified with him cast the 
same into his teeth] It may be 
that both at first reviled Jesus,'and 
that afterwards one of them, im- 
pressed and subdued by his bearing 
on the cross, may have spoken as 
in Luke xxiii. 40-43. It is diffi- 
cult, however, to suppose that the 
writer here was acquainted with 
the facts narrated there. 45. 
Now from the sixth hour 
there was darkness over ail 
the laud, unto the ninth hourj 
From 12 M. to 3 P. M. This could 
not have been an eclipse of the sun, 
for it was then the time of the full 
moon; nor does the language imply 
that the darkness extended to any 
great distance beyond the vicinity 
of Jerusalem. We know not how 
close and strong may be the sjm- 
pathy between the spiritual and the 
physical universe, nor how far the 
phenomena of the outward world 
may be affected by the life and 
conduct of men. The greatest po- 
ets have recognized intimate rela- 
tions between the two ; nor can we 
" set to the account of accident or 
imagination all those remarkable 
coincidences between heaven and 
earth, all those testimonies which 
the signs and tokens of heaven 
42* 



have so often yielded, and men 
taken note of, that the great of 
this world do not come or go with- 
out warning At no time 

does nature put on a careless, un- 
meaning face, when aught that 
intimately concerns her foster-child 
man is being done, nor make as 
though this was nothing unto her. 
On the contrary, her history runs 
parallel, and is subordinate, "to his, 
— the great moments in the life of 
nature concurring with the great 
moments in the life of man, and 
therefore most of all with the great 
crises of the kingdom of God, which 
concerns him the nearest of all. 
Thus, during all those hours that 
the Son of God hung upon the 
cross, there was darkness over the 
whole earth [land '?] ; nature shud- 
dered to her very centre, at the 
moment when he expired; for it 
was her king, as well as man's, 
that died." Trench, Star of the 
Wise Men, p. 23. " The sublimity 
of this moment seems to have been 
symbolically solemnized even by 
nature herself." " How deep lies 
its foundation in human nature to 
regard natural events symbolically 
as manifesting a symp;.t ly between 
the life of nature and the incidents 
of humanity, is shown by parallel 
passages from the profane writers." 
" In the history of Immanuel ap- 
pear in their complete and actual 
truth what were but erroneous, and 
diversely distracted, suppositions of 
mankind." Olshausen. " The wise 
men from the East were led to the 
Redeemer by the remarkable phe- 
nomena which attended his birth ; 
and similar wonders accompanied 
his death. As the unity of the 
world as a whole [the world of 
nature and of spirit] is seen in 
natural signs accompanying epoch- 
making events in history, so we 
need not marvel to find the greatest 
event in history — shown as such 
by its fruits in the spiritual renova- 



498 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabach- 
thani ? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou for- 



tiori of mankind, even to those who 
cannot comprehend its internal im- 
port — attended by similar mani- 
festations. At the moment of 
Christ's death there was an earth- 
quake; and at the same time, and 
perhaps from the same cause, a 
darkness spread over the sky. The 
veil of the Holy of Holies in the 
Temple was rent asunder, signify- 
ing that the Holy of Holies in 
Heaven is opened to all men 
through the finished work of 
Christ; the wall of partition be- 
tween the Divine and the human 
broken down, and a spiritual wor- 
ship substituted for an outward and 
sensible one." Neander, Life of 
Jesus, pp. 421, 422. " Those whose 
belief leads them to reflect who it 
was then suffering, will have no 
difficulty in accounting for these 
signs of sympathy in nature, nor 
in seeing their applicability. The 
consent, in the same words, of all 
three Evangelists, must silence all 
question as to the universal belief 
of this darkness as a fact; and the 
early fathers (Tertull. Apol. c. 21; 
Origen c. Cels. 2. 33; Euseb. in 
Chronicon) appeal to profane testi- 
mony for its truth." Alford. 

46. Eli, Eli, lama sahach- 
thani? that is to say, My 
God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me ?] It is one 
of the incidental proofs of the gen- 
uineness of the Gospels that these 
extraordinary words should be pre- 
served in the' language in which they 
were spoken. They may be found 
in the first verse of the twenty-sec- 
ond Psalm. Dr. Noyes says in re- 
gard to them: " I cannot agree with 
those who find in them no expres- 
sion of anguish or tone of expostu- 
lation, and who suppose them to 
be cited by our Saviour merely in 
order to suggest the confidence and 
triumph with which the Psalm ends, 
but which do not begin before 
the twenty-second verse. Under 
the circumstances of the case, the 
words appear to have had sub- 
stantially the same meaning when 



uttered by Christ as when uttered 
by the Psalmist. They should not 
be interpreted as the deliberate re- 
sult of calm reflection, but as an 
outburst of strong involuntary emo- 
tion, forced from our Saviour by 
anguish of body and mind, in the 
words which naturally occurred to 
him, implying momentary expostu- 
lation, or even complaint. But that 
the interruption of the consciousness 
of God's presence and love was only 
momentary, both in the case of the 
Psalmist and the Saviour, is evi- 
dent, first, from the expression, My 
God! my God! repeated with ear- 
nestness; secondly, from the ex- 
pressions of confidence in the 
course of the Psalm, which might 
follow in the mind of Christ as well 
as in that of the Psalmist; and 
thirdly, from the usage of language, 
according to which the expression 
' to be forsaken by God ' merely 
means ' not to be delivered from 
actual or impending distress.' The 
very parallel line in the verse under 
consideration, ' Why art thou so 
far from helping me ? ' is, accord- 
ing to the laws of Hebrew parallel- 
ism, a complete exposition of the 
language, ' Why hast thou for- 
saken me?' So Ps. xxxviii. 21, 
22." Theological Essays, p. xviii. 
In confirmation of this view Dr. 
Noyes quotes Meyer on Matt, xxvii. 
46, as follows : " By the words 
' Why hast thou forsaken me ? ' 
Jesus expressed what he personally 
felt, his consciousness of communion 
with God having been for a moment 
interrupted by his sufferings. But 
this momentary subjective feeling 
is not to be confounded with an 
actual objective abandonment by 
God (against Olshausen and the 
older commentators), which at 
least in the case of Jesus would 
have been a physical and moral 
impossibility. . . .* . . To find, with 
the older dogmatic theologians, the 
vicarious feeling of Divine wrath in 
the cry of anguish, ' Why hast thou 
forsaken me? is to go beyond the 
New Testament view of the atoning 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



499 



47 saken me ? Some of them that stood there, when they heard 

48 that, said, This man ealleth for Elias. And straightway one 
of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and 

49 put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let 



death of Christ, a? also that of the 
agony in Gethsemane. On the oth- 
er hand, the opinion of some inter- 
preters, that Jesus, when he quoted 
the first verse of the Psalm, had in 
his mind the whole of it, is arbitra- 
ry, and brings into his condition of 
immediate feeling the heterogenous 
element of reflection and citation." 
For our view of the state of Christ's 
mind here, and the overpowering 
nature of his sufferings, we refer to 
what we have said ot the agony in 
Gethsemane, xxvi. 36-46. "His 
capacity for suffering was on the 
same vast scale as his other facul- 
ties, and therefore far transcending 
anything that we can know of hu- 
man anguish. What there may 
have been beyond this, what rela- 
tion his sufferings may have had 
to the redemption of man in the 
infinite counsels of God, and be- 
yond the limits of this world, has 
not been revealed in the Scripture^, 
and therefore cannot be known by 
us. To assert that they had no 
such far-reaching influence would 
be as unauthorized a piece of dog- 
matism, as to assert that their prin- 
cipal efficacy lies in that direction. 
We cannot fathom the depth of our 
Saviour's sufferings, because we 
cannot comprehend the greatness 
of his mind, his nature, or his mis- 
sion. We can no more explain all 
the sources of his grief, than we 
can the sources of his knowledge or 
his power. When we can analyze 
the process by which he revealed to 
us the mysteries of the kingdom of 
heaven, or raised Lazarus from the 
dead, or talked in open vision, face to 
face, with Moses and Elias, then we 
may hope to analyze the sufferings 
of Gethsemane and Calvary. Un- 
doubtedly his sufferings were ter- 
ribly aggravated by the intense 
and perfect sympathy with man, 
through which he became the rep- 
resentative of the whole race, tak- 



ing upon himself their sorrows and 
their sins. We can hardly do more 
than guess at the amount of an- 
guish thus forced upon him. 
" An enigma indeed," says Xean- 
der, " must this exclamation ap- 
pear to those who forget 

that Christ suffered and died for 
mankind, — for mankind laid up in 
his heart; an enigma to all, in a 
word, who are strangers to the 
Christian life. But the Christian 
sees in this feature of his Master's 
history a type of the life of indi- 
vidual believers, and of the whole 
Church; for both must be led 
through all stages of suffering, and 
even through moments of apparent 
abandonment by God, to perfection 
and glorification." Life of Jesus, 
p. 420. 47. Some of 

them that stood there, when 
they heard that, said, This 
man ealleth for Elias] We 
see no evidence that these words, or 
those in v. 49, " Let us see whether 
Elins will come to save him" were 
spoken in' derision. The spectators, 
we suppose, had been deeply im- 
pressed by the darkness and the 
silence, and now that the silence 
was broken by the remarkable 
words of Jesus, they misunder- 
stood their meaning, and were 
waiting with awe to see what the 
result might be. 48. And 

straightway one of them ran, 
and took a sponge, and filled 
it with vinegar] " We have no 
reason for assuming that the soldiers 
offering vinegar in Luke xxiii. 36, 
37 is the same incident as this. 
Since then the bodily state of the 
Redeemer had greatly changed ; and 
what was then offered in mockery 
might well be now asked for in the 
agony of death, and received when 
presented, as in our text. The o£os 
is the posca, sour wine, or vinegar 
and water, the ordinary drink of 
the Eoman soldiers." Alford. The 



500 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



be ; let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, so 

when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the 

ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in 51 

twain from the top to the bottom ; and the earth did quake, 
and the rocks rent ; and the graves were opened, and many 52 
bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the 53 
graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and 
appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and they that 54 
were with him watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those 
things which were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly 

this was the Son of God. And many women were there, 55 

beholding afar off; which followed Jesus from Galilee, minis- 
tering unto him ; among which was Mary Magdalene, and 56 



drink is given in reply to the re- 
quest of Jesus, " 1 thirst, " in John 
xix. 28. 51, 52. And, 

behold, the veil of the temple 
was rent in twain] This must 
have been the veil or curtain before 
the Holy of Holies. See note on 
45. And many bodies of the saints 
v:hich slept arose, and came out of 
the graves after his resurrection, and 
went into the holy city, and appeared 
to many. This passage is rejected 
by Mr. Norton as an interpolation. 
But it is found in all the best man- 
uscripts. The events are of a most 
extraordinary character; but that 
alone will hardly justify us in ex- 
cluding the passage from the Gos- 
pels. There is nothing in the ac- 
count which should be incredible to 
those who believe in the miracles of 
Jesus. It is only as accessory or 
dependent incidents arranging them- 
selves around the one great fact of 
Christ's death and resurrection that 
these extraordinary events can be 
regarded in their true aspect and 
relations. When thus regarded, they 
may appear as the natm*al and fit- 
ting accompaniments of that death 
which broke down the powers of 
the grave, and which became a 
door or gateway of life to all be- 
lievers, and thus brought life and 
immortality to light. But when we 
undertake to explain the events, and 
to show precisely how they may 
have occurred, we find many diffi- 



culties in the way, and are obliged 
to say, with Adam Clarke, that " the 
place is extremely obscure." There 
is but one other passage in Mat- 
thew (xvii. 27) which seems to us 
to bear such internal marks of 
being a mythical accretion. 
54. Truly this was the Son of 
God] The expression in Luke, 
xxiii. 47, is, " Certainly this was a 
righteous man." The two expres- 
sions, we suppose, were actually 
used by the centui'ion. They may, 
however, be only different transla- 
tions of the same words, and mean- 
ing substantially the same thing. 
They were spoken by one who be- 
lieved in the Gods. The exact ver- 
sion of the words recorded by Mat- 
thew is, " Truly this was a God's 
son," i. e." a divine,'''' or, as St. Luke 
has it, " a righteous, man.'''' It is pos- 
sible that he used the words in the 
Jewish sense, as indicated in our 
common version. 56. Mary 

Magdalene] " See ch. xv. 39. 
She is not to be confounded 
with Mary who anointed our Lord 
(John xii. 1), nor with the woman 
who did the same, Luke vii. 36; 
see Luke vi'ti. 2." Alford. There 
is no evidence except what is indi- 
cated by the disease of which Jesus 
cured her (Luke viii. 2), that she 
had been a dissolute woman. Her 
name probably came from Magdala. 
and Mary the mother of 
James and Josesj The mother of 



MATTHEW XXVII. 



501 



Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebe- 
dee's children. 
5" When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arima- 
thea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple. 

58 He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate 

59 commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had 

60 taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid 
it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock ; 
and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and 

61 departed. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other 
Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre. 



Jrtmes the less, or the younger, says 
Mark, to distinguish him from James 
the son of Zebedee, and the wife of 
Alphseus or Clopas; see John xix. 
25, and com. i n Mitt. xiii. 53-58. 

and the mother of Zebe- 
dee's children] = Salome, Mark 
xv. 40. 57. there came 

a rich man of Arimathea, 
named Joseph] " A disciple of 
Jesus," says John (xix. 38), u but 
secretly, through fear of the Jews." 
" A counsellor," i. e. a member of the 
Sanhedrim, says Luke (xxiii. 50, 
51), " and he was a good and right- 
eons man (this man had not con- 
sented to their counsel and their 
deed) from Arimathea, a city of the 
Jews, who also himself was waiting 
for the kingdom of God.*' This is 
all that is known, nor can it be 
determined now precisely where 
Arimathea was. He was evidently 
a man (Mark xv. 43) of great re- 
spectability of character as well as 
a man of wealth. 58. He 

went to Pilate, and begged 
the body of Jesus] The Roman 
custom was to leave the bodies ex- 
posed on the crosses till devoured 
by birds of prey. Horace, Epis. I. 
16. 48. The Jewish custom, on the 
other hand, ( Josephus, Jewish Wars, 
IV. 5. 2,) was to take them down 
before sunset and bury them. If no 
one had come to ask for the body 
of Jesus, it would have been buried 
in the common place appointed for 
the burial of executed criminals. 
He has been " numbered with the 
transgressors," and now he is to 



have his grave " with the rich in 
his death." Had he been placed 
with others in the common burving- 
ground for malefactors, it would have 
been impossible to obtain the cir- 
cumstantial evidence that we now 
have of his resurrection. The chief 
priests would not have thought of 
sealing the stone, or setting a watch 
there. 59. Wrapped it 

in a clean linen cloth] " The 
Jews, as well as the Egyptians, 
added spices to keep the body 
from putrefaction, and the linen 
was wrapped about every part to 
keep the aromatics in contact with 
the flesh. From John xix. 39, 40, 
we learn that a mixture of myrrh 
aud aloes, of one hundred pounds' 
weight, had been applied to the 
body of Jesus when he was buried. 
And that a second embalmment 
was intended, we learn from Luke 
xxiii. 56 and xxiv. 1, as the hurry 
to get the body interred before the 
Sabbath did not permit them to 
complete the embalming in the first 
instance." Adam Clarke. 

60. And laid it in his own 
new tomb] Matthew alone re- 
lates that it was Joseph's own tomb. 
John relates that it was in a gar- 
den, and in the place where he was 
crucified. " All that we can deter- 
mine respecting the sepulchre from 
the data here furnished is : — 1. That 
it was not a natural cave, but an 
artificial excavation in the rock. 
2. That it was not cut doicnwards, 
after the manner of a grave with 
us, but horizontally, or nearly so, 



502 MATTHEW XXVII. 

Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, 62 
the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, say- 63 
ing, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was 
yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command 64 
therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, 
lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say 
unto the people, He is risen from the dead ; so the last error 
shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have 65 
a watch ; go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they 66 
went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and set- 
tins a watch. 



into the face of the rock flxion. Sir] Kvpie, Lord. 

3. That it was in the spot where the The title of respect usually applied 

crucifixion took place." Alford. to Jesus, and to persons of distinc- 

62. the next day, tion, but not implying the homage 

that followed the day of the or reverence due to a divine being. 

preparation J More exactly, On 66. sealing the stone, 

the next day, i. e. the day that and setting a watch] " The 

came after the preparation. The sealing was by means of a cord or 

preparation was the day before the string passing across the stone at 

Jewish Sabbath. Why should it the mouth of the sepulchre, and 

be mentioned here? Because to fastened at either end to the rock 

Matthew, when he recorded these by sealing-clay." The watch or 

events, that preparation day on guard was probably a small detach- 

which Jesus had been crucified ment of Koman soldiers which the 

was the day from which to reckon governor placed at the disposal of 

even the Sabbath which came im- the priests, and of course subject to 

mediately after it. It was as if he their orders, 
had said, The day after the cruci- 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 503 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The Gospel Narratives of the Resurrection. 

" The independence and distinctness of the four narra- 
tives in this part," says Alford, "have never been ques- 
tioned, and indeed herein lie its principal difficulties. With 
regard to them, I refer to what I have said in the Prole- 
gomena, that supposing us to be acquainted with everything 
said and done, in its order and exactness, we should doubt- 
less be able to reconcile, or account for, the present forms of 
the narratives : but not having this key to the harmonizing 
of them, all attempts to do so in minute particulars must be 
full of arbitrary assumptions, and carry no certainty with 
them. And I may remark, that, of all harmonies, those of 
the incidents of these chapters are to me the most unsatis- 
factory." After a very careful comparison of the different 
narratives, without reference to any commentator or har- 
monist, we do not find the difficulties so great as Alford 
supposes them to be. The result to which we have been 
led by our own independent inquiries agrees substantially 
with the conclusions of Dr. Carpenter, and is in most par- 
ticulars nearly the same as that in Dr. Robinson's Harmony, 
which we did not read till after we had satisfied our minds 
in regard to the true succession of events. In order to 
study the matter to advantage, it is necessary that the reader 
should thoroughly master the different accounts, so as to 
carry clearly and distinctly in his mind all the details as 
they are given by each separate Evangelist. 

In the first place, we have no reason to suppose that all 
the women mentioned by the Evangelists set out from the 
same place or at the same moment. It is not improbable 



504 MATTHEW XXVIII. 

that Mary Magdalene and " the other Mary " had spent the 
Sabbath at Bethany, and there prepared the spices with 
which to anoint the body of Jesus. Salome, on the other 
hand, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza (Luke viii. 3), were 
probably in the city. It would appear also, from Luke 
xxiv. 33, that the eleven had a place of meeting in the 
city, and from John xx. 2, that Peter and John at least 
had their places of abode in Jerusalem. 

We may suppose then that " very early in the morning " 
(Mark xvi. 2), "while it was yet dark" (John xx. 1), Mary 
Magdalene and the women who were with her set out from 
Bethany, which was nearly two miles from Jerusalem, talk- 
ing by the way of what had taken place, and questioning 
among themselves how they should roll away the heavy 
stone from the mouth of the sepulchre. When they reached 
the spot, the sun had already risen (Mark xvi. 2). Mary 
Magdalene, the moment she saw that the stone had been 
removed, supposing that the body had been taken away, 
ran swiftly into the city to Peter and John, who, excited 
by her words, ran as rapidly as possible to the sepulchre. 
During this interval, which must have taken up from fifteen 
to thirty minutes, the other women come nearer to the tomb, 
see the angel (one angel, Matthew and Mark), and hear 
from him that Jesus has risen, and that he would meet his 
disciples in Galilee. They depart to find the disciples, and 
while on their way are met by Jesus, who has already 
shown himself to Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre. They 
tell what they have heard and seen to the disciples, but are 
not believed. Immediately after they had left the sepul- 
chre, the women from the city, Salome, Joanna, and per- 
haps others, came with their spices, as by previous agree- 
ment, and while they stood there amazed and perplexed 
(Luke xxiv. 1-7), two men stood by them in shining gar- 
ments, and said, " Why seek ye the living among the dead ? 
He is not here, but is risen" (is raised). They hastily de- 
parted, and now, or perhaps before their arrival, Peter and 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 505 

John reached the spot, and having entered the tomb, and 
seen precisely how the grave-clothes were laid, they went 
away, leaving Mary Magdalene behind. She stood weeping 
by the sepulchre (John xx. 11-18) when two angels ap- 
peared to her, and afterwards Jesus himself addressed her. 

There .is no certain evidence that this was the precise 
order of events. Nor is there any necessity for supposing 
that any of the women came from Bethany that morning. 
They may all of them have been spending the Sabbath in 
Jerusalem, and by a previous agreement may have left 
their homes in different parts of the city at about the 
same time to go to the sepulchre. In reading such nar- 
ratives we should not forget the haste, surprise, and aston- 
ishment which must have characterized the transactions of 
that morning, and prevented any one person from getting at 
all the details in their precise order of succession or their 
exact relations to one another. Traces of this state of mind 
and the apparent inconsistencies growing out of it must be 
expected, and are to be found, in the Gospels. 

The Different Accounts not Contradictory. 

But are there any important contradictions ? 1. As to 
the persons. According to Matthew, Mary Magdalene and 
the other Mary came very early, &c. Mark mentions Mary 
Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. Luke 
speaks of Mary Magdalene, Maiy the mother of James, and 
Joanna, and the other women who were with them, while 
John makes mention only of Mary Magdalene. But no 
one professes to mention all the women who were there, 
and it would be natural for each writer to call by name 
only those who were uppermost in his own mind. John 
does not say that Mary Magdalene was the only woman. 
On the contrary, the words which he represents her as 
using, " we know not where they have laid • him," imply 
that others had been with her, especially a*s after her return 

43 



506 MATTHEW XXVIII. 

to the sepulchre, when she was left alone, she, in the same 
form of expression (John xx. 13), says, "and /know not 
where they have laid him." This is one of the out-of-the- 
way coincidences which go to establish the authority of 
truthful writings, because they cannot be counterfeited. 

2. As to the angels. Matthew speaks of one angel, 
whose appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white 
as snow, and who was sitting on the stone that had been 
rolled from the sepulchre. Mark (xvi. 5) says, that when 
they entered or came to the sepulchre, for the Greek word 
may have either meaning, they saw a young man sitting on 
the right clothed in a long white garment. One of the two 
writers may speak of an angel outside, and the other of an 
angel within the sepulchre ; but the language of both may 
equally well apply to the same angel in the same position, 
i. e. sitting on the right hand, outside of the sepulchre. 
Luke, who at the end of his account mentions Mary Mag- 
dalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and 
the other women with them, as the women who told these 
things to the Apostles, would naturally confine his narrative 
of occurrences at the sepulchre to what particularly con- 
cerned that portion of the company from whom his informa- 
tion was derived, and they may have been Joanna and the 
women from Galilee who were with her. These women 
may have come a little later than the others. They saw 
not one, but two angels, and them not sitting, but standing, 
and speaking to them in language very different from that 
which the angel had spoken to the other women (Luke 
xxiv. 5, 6, 22). According to John, Mary Magdalene saw 
no angel when she first came to the sepulchre, and Peter 
and John, who came with her, or rather a little before her, 
on her return to the sepulchre, saw none, though they 
entered the sepulchre. But after they had gone, she, stoop- 
ing down to look into the sepulchre, saw there two angels 
in white, one at the head and the other at the feet where 
the body of Jesus had lain. This is plainly a different 



- MATTHEW XXVIII. 507 

transaction from that which is described by the other Evan- 
gelists. The inference from all this is, that Matthew and 
Mark describe one appearance, Luke another to a different 
party, and John still a third. Where, then, is the contradic- 
tion or inconsistency ? 

3. As to the first manifestation of Jesus. According to 
John xx. 15-17, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene; 
according to Matthew, he appeared to the women as they 
were hastening away from the sepulchre. Matthew may 
have generalized the occurrence which John has given in 
detail, and represented Jesus as appearing to the women, 
when as a literal fact he appeared to only one of their num- 
ber. This is no unusual form of speech. We rather infer, 
however, from the narrative, that Jesus appeared twice, viz. 
1. to Mary Magdalene, and 2. to the women who had been 
with her when she first came to the tomb. 

In the accounts of what occurred in the morning there 
are no contradictions. The whole period taken up by these 
events probably was not more than an hour, and may not 
have been half that time. Yet how have the disclosures of 
those few moments revolutionized the world, changing its 
great currents of thought and inaugurating a new and mo- 
mentous era in its history ! 

Leaving the events of the morning, the writers go on in 
very different ways. After a paragraph relating to the 
soldiers, and without anything to indicate the time or events 
that had intervened, Matthew hastens to give an account 
of the meeting which Jesus had appointed with his disciples 
in Galilee. Luke details in full the meeting of Jesus with 
two disciples [not Apostles] on their way. to Emmaus in the 
afternoon, and his appearance to the Apostles in Jerusalem 
in the evening. This evening appearance of Jesus to the 
Apostles is mentioned by John (xx. 19 — 23) in a narrative 
which is remarkably distinct from Luke's account, and_y_ej^- \f » • 
strikingly corroborates it. Mark, in a passage (s^Tl2 - 20) 
which Tischendorf rejects as not belonging to the Gospel, 



508 MATTHEW XXVIII. 

says that Jesus appeared in another form to two disciples 
as they were going into the country ; that they announced it 
to the rest, — their associates, and probably not the Apostles, 
— and were not believed ; and that afterwards he appeared 
to the eleven as they were at meat, and reproached them 
for their want of faith. This part of Mark's Gospel is very 
much condensed, and evidently crowds into a few sentences 
sayings and events which were separated by considerable 
intervals of time. * 



The Different Times of his Appearance. 

From all the accounts we gather that Jesus appeared, — 
1. to Mary Magdalen (John xx. 13 - 17) ; 2. to the [other] 
women (Matt, xxviii. 9, 10) ; 3. to Peter (Luke xxiv. 34, 
1 Cor. xv. 5) ; 4. to the two disciples on their way to Em- 
maus (Luke xxiv. 15), which may possibly have been before 
his appearance to Peter; 5. to the Apostles (Thomas being 
absent) at supper in Jerusalem (Luke xxiv. 36 — 42, John xx. 
19, 20, 1 Cor. xv. 5) ; 6. on the next Sunday at Jerusalem 
to the Apostles, and particularly to Thomas (John xx. 26) ; 
7. to above five hundred of the brethren at once, probably 
in Galilee (1 Cor. xv. 6) ; 8. to James, probably also in 
Galilee (1 Cor. xv. 7) ; 9. to all the Apostles (1 Cor. xv. 
7), probably the same meeting as that described in John 
xxi. ; 10. to the Apostles on a mountain in Galilee (Matt, 
xxviii. 16, 17), which may be the same as his appearance 
to "above five hundred." 11. There is the charge given to 
the Apostles (Matt, xxviii. 18-20, Mark xvi. 15-18) with 
nothing to mark the time or place. 12. There is the last 
interview, ending with his Ascension (Luke xxiv. 44 - 50, 
Mark xvi. 19, 20, Acts i. 4- 10). But as Jesus was seen 
of the Apostles from time to time for forty days (Acts i. 3), 
" speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom 
of God," we have no reason to suppose that these were the 
only occasions on which he was seen by them. 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 509 

Matthew (xxviii. 7, 10) says that both the angel and 
Jesus directed the women to announce a meeting of the 
disciples with him in Galilee. " Go, tell my brethren that 
they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me." "Then," 
verse 16, "the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into 
a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when 
they saw him, they worshipped him : but some doubted." 
If Matthew, one of the Apostles, knew, as he must have 
known, of the meeting of Jesus with the Apostles more than 
once in Jerusalem, how could he fail to leave some record 
of the fact in his narrative ? His Gospel is only a sketch 
of portions of our Saviour's life, and nowhere professes to 
give a full account of everything that took place in a single 
instance. His whole account of the resurrection, and the 
sayings and events connected with it, contains only a few 
more words than it requires to fill one of these pages. A 
dry summary of facts, such as would be required in order 
to bring the various particulars within such limits, was not 
at all after his manner of writing. He gives the salient 
acts and words as they lie most prominent in his mind, 
often without reference to the intervening or accompanying 
circumstances. He belonged to Galilee, and may have gone 
thither before the other Apostles to call the disciples who 
were there together to meet their risen Lord. In this way 
the meeting there may, after an interval of some years, 
have been the one which he remembered most distinctly, 
and which he therefore selected to be preserved in his brief 
narrative. The points which he relates are all connected 
together. On the morning of the resurrection, both the 
angel and Jesus speak of the meeting which was to take 
place in Galilee, and after stating this, and inserting by 
way of parenthesis a short account of the bargain between 
the elders and the soldiers in regard to the events of that 
morning, Matthew passes over all that took place in Jeru- 
salem, and hastens on to the meeting in Galilee. 

But he says that at the meeting in Galilee " some doubt- 
43* 



510 MATTHEW XXVIII. 

ed." If the meetings spoken of as taking place in Jerusa- 
lem had really taken place, how could there have been this 
element of doubt ? There is nothing to show that the meet- 
ing in Galilee was confined to the Eleven. The direction, 
" Go, tell my brethren," indicates a wider circle. St. Paul 
speaks of Jesus being seen by above five hundred at once. 
And it certainly would not be strange if some of these five 
hundred came in an unbelieving state of mind. The honesty 
of the writer who recorded the doubt is more remarkable 
than that the doubt should exist under such circumstances. 
The great and important omissions which must, from the 
nature of the case, belong to so brief a narrative, should 
make us slow to infer that even important facts connected 
with the events which he relates either did not take place, 
or were unknown to the writer, because they are not men- 
tioned by him. This consideration has had too little weight 
both with those who defend and those who would break 
down the authenticity of the Gospel narratives. In ac- 
counts which from their very nature and design are neces- 
sarily so incomplete and fragmentary, the omission of any 
fact, however important in itself, is no evidence that it did 
not take place, or that it was unknown to the writer. With 
so many facts of the greatest significance and weight press- 
ing upon him for admission, and yet obliged as he was by 
the necessities of the case to exclude most of them from his 
narrative, it ought not to seem strange to us if we should 
find wanting in his brief account circumstances as interest- 
ing and important as those which he has retained. An 
accomplished writer in these times would probably fill a 
hundred pages where St. Matthew did one with the ac- 
count of what transpired between the Crucifixion and the 
Ascension. One closely written half-sheet of our letter- 
paper is more space than he had to spare for his record 
of all the circumstances connected with the most momentous 
event in the history of our race. 



MATTUEW XXVIII. 511 



Each Account Independent of the Rest. 

We have examined in their relation to the Resurrection 
of Jesus four distinct and independent narratives. Neither 
of them could have been drawn from one or from all the 
rest ; for each has some characteristic feature of its own, — 
not only characteristic forms of expression, but statements 
of fact which are not found in either of the others. Each 
of the writers must therefore have had his own independent 
sources of information ; and from these separate sources of 
information they all testify to the same great and wonderful 
event, not in general terms, but each one in his own way, by 
facts, and incidental shadings, and colorings of facts, peculiar* 
to himself. These variations are in some cases so great, 
that superficial or hostile readers have sometimes supposed 
them to be utterly irreconcilable. But a thorough exami- 
nation shows, in almost every case, that these apparent dis- 
crepancies may be harmoniously adjusted, and thus made to 
corroborate the truthfulness of the whole account. For 
example, Mark (xvi. 5) says that the women entered into 
the sepulchre. Matthew says nothing about their entering 
into it, but he says (xxviii. 8) " they went quickly out from 
the sepulchre." Or, to take another of the many instances 
that might be given, Matthew, Mark, and Luke speak of 
the women — more than one — - who came to the sepulchre 
early on the morning of the resurrection ; John speaks of 
Mary Magdalene alone. Here is an apparent inconsistency. 
But on looking carefully into John's account, we find Mary 
saying to Peter and John, "They have taken away the 
Lord from the sepulchre, and we know not where they 
have laid him," — implying the presence of others with 
them at the tomb, and thus undesignedly corroborating the 
accounts of the other Evangelists. Now, unless Jesus did 
actually rise from the dead, and meet his disciples, and talk 
with them, how could writings so independent of one an- 



512 MATTHEW XXVIII. 

other, and apparently so inconsistent with one another, bring 
forward such a variety of facts, which bear upon the same 
point, presenting different sides and features of the same 
case, and which, notwithstanding their apparent inconsist- 
encies, are found, on a minute and exact investigation, to 
harmonize entirely in their accounts ? 

The Kesurrection of Jesus. 

But we do not like to dwell on this great and life-giving 
event as critics. It comes to us in a more living form, and 
has higher lessons to teach. 

When the disciples saw that their Master was really 
dead, their most dearly cherished hopes and expectations 
died within them. They must have been like men stunned 
by a violent blow, or walking in some terrible dream, hardly 
knowing where they went or what they did. The women, 
less mindful of consequences and more true to the loving 
instincts of their nature, followed after the body to see 
where it was laid, when it was hastily embalmed and 
entombed. They then prepared spices and gums, that, 
when the Sabbath was ended, they might come back again 
and complete the rites of burial. There is no word to 
show how the Sabbath was spent, — that first day of sharp 
and hopeless grief, whose heavens encircled them like the 
wall of a tomb out of which all joy and hope were gone, 
and when there was nothing left to them but a shuddering 
sense of dreariness and death. The Sabbath interposed its 
merciful release from care and toil, till they had recovered 
somewhat from the first benumbing shock of misery. But 
with the first day of the week, the first Christian Sunday, 
they are up before the earliest dawn. Their grief must 
find expression and relief in some act of grateful remem- 
brance, though only to the body of him whom they had 
followed with such intensity of love and reverence. While 
it is yet dark, from Bethany, from different parts of Jeru- 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 513 

salem, by previous agreement, or with the spontaneous move- 
ment prompted by a common impulse, they are on their 
way, talking sadly as they go, and asking who shall remove 
for them the heavy stone which had been placed against the 
mouth of the sepulchre. 

But it had been removed. Mary Magdalene, the most 
ardent and impetuous of their number, having come first 
within sight of the sepulchre and seen the stone rolled away, 
ran to Peter and John, with a fresh outburst of grief, to say 
that even the consolation of paying the last sad rites of 
burial had been taken from them. " They have taken away 
the Lord, and we know not where they have laid him." 
The other women, who were a little behind her, went to 
the tomb, and saw an angel clothed in white, sitting on the 
stone which had been rolled away. He asked them, " Why 
seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but 
is risen." They fly with the intelligence. Other women, 
from other parts of the city, come, and see two angels. 
Then Peter and John come running to the tomb, which 
they enter, and seeing how the grave-clothes are laid, one 
of them at least believes that he is risen from the dead. 
Mary Magdalene returns, and, as she stands weeping by 
the tomb, two angels appear to her. Then, her eyes 
blinded with tears, she perceives some one whom she sup- 
poses to be the gardener. He asks her why she is weeping, 
and whom she seeks. She says to him, in the sharpness of 
her grief, " If thou hast borne him hence, tell me where 
thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." Then, in 
tones which could not be mistaken, he called her by name. 
She turned to him with an exclamation of surprise and rev- 
erence, and went away bearing with her to the disciples the 
wonderful intelligence. But it seemed to them as an idle 
tale, and they believed her not. They ran from one to 
another, telling and hearing, — not believing what they 
heard, yet repeating it to others, and impatient with those 
who did not believe, — thrilled with expectation and wonder. 



514 MATTHEW XXVIII. 

But the truth breaks upon them. " The Lord is risen in- 
deed." It is the creation of a new heaven and a new earth 
to them. The tomb has given up its dead, and Death him- 
self, discrowned and disarmed, leaves its terrors at the foot 
of the cross, and through the gate which it has opened 
points upward to the realms of eternal life. "What occurred 
to Jesus while he was among the dead is unknown, beyond 
what may be inferred from his words upon the cross : " This 
day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." If the Evangelists 
had been unscrupulous men, earnest to make the most of 
their subject, by ministering to the diseased taste for prying 
into the things which have been wisely hidden from us, 
what tales of wonder would they have told of his experience 
there ! But there is nothing of this. And there is the same 
reserve in regard to all the details which could only serve 
to excite and gratify an idle or a dangerous curiosity. The 
great fact of the resurrection of Him who is the resurrection 
and the life to all who live and believe in him, is set forth 
in language which cannot be explained away. He came 
forth, a new sun, from the dark and universal night of 
death, to throw the radiance of a triumphant morning over 
the tombs of the world, to drive away the shadows that 
pressed everywhere so heavily on human hearts, to unfold 
to them the joy and gladness of the eternal life, to revolu- 
tionize the religious ideas of the world, and create a new 
life in the souls of men. It was so with the Apostles of 
Jesus Christ. It has been so with his followers since, from 
generation to generation. New hopes, new principles of 
thought and life, new aspirations and desires, have been 
awakened and cherished. No earthly gloom can over- 
shadow the light. They whose plans and expectations 
here are all broken up, to whom this life, devoted to the 
highest ends, has sometimes seemed an utter failure, behold 
now, in that world beyond, a new sphere of activity and 
power, where plans here broken up shall be renewed, where 
hopes here dead shall live again, where aspirations doomed 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 19. 515 

here to a perpetual disappointment shall find their fulfil- 
ment, and visions of holiness and joy and blessed compan- 
ionship with others, which were here mocked with a per- 
petual rebuff, shall embody themselves in the glorious 
realities which live around them. And most of all, the 
sinful and rejected, alienated from God and wandering 
away from their own happiness and rest, dead to all the 
best hopes and instincts of the soul, may find in him new- 
ness of life, reconciliation, atonement through his death and 
resurrection from the dead, if they come with penitent and 
trusting hearts to him. " But now is Christ risen from the 
dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept." (1 Cor. 
xv. 20.) u If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those 
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right 
hand of God." (Col. hi. 1.) " To him that overcometh 
will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also 
overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." 
(Rev. iii. 21.) If the Lord is risen within us, we have 
passed already from death unto life, and death can have 
dominion over us no more. Let not the greatness of his 
promises overwhelm and confound and oppress us as reveal- 
ing too bright a glory and too great a joy for us to bear ; 
but through our faith in him, and our fidelity to him, may 
his immortal energies unfold themselves within us. 

19. — The Formula of Baptism. 

" Go ye, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them 
into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost." Sectarian writers generally maintain that 
their peculiar views of the Trinity, whatever they may be, 
and they are many and various, are taught in this formula. 
There can be no doubt, we think, that the words were in- 
tended by our Saviour to indicate the broad outlines of 
Christian belief, as distinguished from every other system of 
religious faith. They teach not merely a belief in God, but 



516 MATTHEW XXVIII. 19. 

in God as he is revealed to us in Christ, and as he acts upon 
us by his sanctifying influences, or his Holy Spirit. The 
religion which Jesus came into the world to teach, and into 
which those who would be his disciples are to be initiated, is 
not a more elevated form of Deism, or a refinement on Juda- 
ism. It has elements, implied in the baptismal form, which 
are peculiar to itself, and which deeply affect the character 
of its disciples, and the nature of their worship. If the New 
Testament should be divested of all that is said in it about 
Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, leaving to us only what is 
revealed of the Infinite Father, our religion would lose much 
of what most commends it to our hearts. God would be 
thrown back into the distant heavens. Our conceptions of 
him would become remote, and our feelings towards him 
chilled. He would not connect himself as he now does with 
the loving reverence that draws us towards him, and makes 
us look up to him, not with awe alone, but with tears of 
trusting gratitude and affection. As we follow Jesus, in the 
. Gospels, through his ministry, and hear his words and im- 
bibe his spirit, we feel that he is to us the manifestation of 
the Father, that he brings God in all his gentle and endear- 
ing attributes home to our hearts, connecting him with our 
fireside affections, and giving warmth and tenderness, and a 
sense of trust and nearness to us in our devotions. So like- 
wise our feelings towards God are modified by what is 
taught of the Holy Spirit, which dwells a sanctifying pres- 
ence and influence in the soul, subduing our hearts, forming 
them anew through a divine life into the image of God, till 
his, love pervades all our affections, purges away all bitter- 
ness, and is breathed out from us in our daily thoughts and 
acts. 

Here is a type of character and of piety altogether unlike 
those which proceed from any other religious dispensation. 
And the influences under which it is formed are in some 
way or other connected with the formula of Christian bap- 
tism. All the agencies — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 19. 517 

unite to create in us the highest type of Christian worship 
and the Christian life. They who cherish that worship and 
that life feel themselves bound together by a powerful bond 
of sympathy and union. They are drawn to one another, 
and feel that wherever two or three are gathered together 
in his name, there is Jesus in the midst of them. They are 
brought into communion with him and with heavenly things. 
Inward life, strength, peace, is imparted to them, and a 
nearer intimacy with heaven. 

Now, why cannot the whole Christian world fall back on 
the great Scriptural expressions which address themselves 
with such power to the imagination and the heart, and feed 
the inmost springs of thought and life ? Why not be satis- 
fied with the way in which the doctrine has been taught by 
Jesus and his disciples ? Why refine upon their words, or 
cover them over with our metaphysical distinctions, or tie 
them up by our definitions, till the simplicity, the power, and 
the freedom of the divine revelation is lost ? Those living 
words, which come to us always in the perennial greenness 
of a divine creation, with thought enough to exhaust the 
intellect of the profoundest philosopher, while they come 
home also to the heart and apprehension of a child, the 
moment they are stript of their freedom, and drawn up into 
a creed, lose their charm, and become unsatisfactory, barren, 
and dead. 

Whatever the doctrine of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost may be in its last analysis, — a point which no 
mind of mortal man will ever be able to reach, — it does 
not in the Scriptures offer itself to us under any metaphys- 
ical formula. We find a part of it used by Peter as a heart- 
felt expression of grateful trust : " Thou art the Christ, the 
Son of the living God." (Matt. xvi. 16.) It was breathed 
out in a promise of unspeakable tenderness : " I will not 

leave you comfortless ; I will come to you Because I 

live, ye shall live also." (John xiv. 18, 19.) "I will pray 
the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that 
44 



518 MATTHEW XXVIII. 19. 

he may abide* with you forever." (John xiv. 16.) And in 
the prayer after the last Supper, " And this is life eternal, 
that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom thou hast sent." (John xvii. 3.) It was uttered 
more fully in the baptismal service. It revealed itself to the 
first martyr, when at his death he saw the glory of God, 
and cried, " Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son 
of man standing on the right hand of God." (Acts vii. 56.) 
It came as a benediction from St. Paul, when, yearning to- 
wards his converts with desires which no other language 
could express, he said, " The grace of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the 
Holy Ghost, be with you all." (2 Cor. xiii. 13.) And in 
the Apocalypse it appears as a solemn ascription in the tri- 
umphal scene, where " a great multitude, which no man 
could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and 
tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, 
clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, and cried 
with a loud voice, saying, ' Salvation to our God who sitteth 
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.' " (Rev. vii. 9, 10.) 
These were the earliest expressions of the doctrine, — not 
metaphysical abstractions, or subtile distinctions, or articles 
of faith, — but a promise full of tenderness, a prayer, a 
benediction, or an anthem. And so it continued to be at 
least for three centuries after Christ. The early Christians 
had too deep an interest in him, and .were bound to him by 
affections too strong and full of life, to attempt by any poor 
refinements or definitions of theirs to analyze and set forth 
the mysteries of his nature. Least of all did they attempt 
to bind them up in articles of faith. They were guided by 
a higher wisdom than that. And herein let us learn of 
them. Man's thoughts respecting God change. Words 
lose their power. " The words of that creed, for example, 
which we read last Sunday (the Athanasian), were living 
words a few centuries ago. They have changed their mean- 
ing, and are, to ninety-nine out of every hundred, only dead 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 519 

words. Yet men tenaciously hold to the expressions of 
which they do not understand the meaning, and which have a 
very different meaning now from that they had once, — Per- 
son, Procession, Substance ; and they are almost worse with 
them than without them, — for they conceal their ignorance, 
and place a barrier against the earnestness of inquiry" 
(Robertson's Sermons, First Series, p. 73.) But, worse than 
this, they oppress humble, sensitive, and conscientious souls, 
and often either bind them to forms of belief wliich they 
cannot accept, or drive fheni away from a communion which 
their religious instincts crave, and to which they are bound 
by the dearest and most sacred associations. " It is a re- 
markable and indisputable fact, that if Christ were to come 
on earth unknown, and say anything or everything which 
he is recorded to have said while on earth, that and no 
more, it would not be sufficient for his admission into any 
[so-called] Evangelical church: no bishop could lay hands. 
on him without violating his rubric ; no synod ordain him 
as a preacher." "We quote this extraordinary statement 
from an abstract of a sermon by Rev. George Putnam, D. D. 
Its truth cannot be denied. And it is a fact of terrible sig- 
nificance to those who hold, as essential to church-member- 
ship here and to salvation hereafter, terms of intellectual 
belief which would exclude from their communion the 
Saviour himself, unless he should consent to add some new 
and more explicit articles of faith to those which the Evan- 
gelists and Apostles have left on record. 

Coxcludixg Remarks. 

The Gospel of St. Matthew begins with an account of the 
human and the divine parentage of Christ, his earthly hu- 
miliation, though descended from patriarchs and kings, and 
his more than earthly dignity and greatness, though placed 
in the lowliest walks of life. This twofold aspect of his 
life appears throughout the Gospel. His humility shows 



520 MATTHEW XXVIII. 

itself amidst his mightiest works, and even when he as- 
sumes an authority beyond all that man has ever claimed. 
And wherever his humiliation and helplessness are most 
apparent, there his majesty shines forth. This humility 
and grandeur, the most difficult combination in the life and 
character, are easily and harmoniously combined and carried 
out from beginning to end. There is no one act or word to 
mar the beautiful and always living consistency of the por- 
traiture. Except in the other Gospels, no other such nar- 
rative, nor anything which makes any approach to it, is to 
be found in the literature of the world. Those who have 
followed us through our work, reading the Gospel itself more 
than our comments upon it, who have entered into the mar- 
vellous depth and elevation of its thought, and of the life 
in which, more than by any words, its thought is revealed, 
must, we think, see in them the workings of a power more 
wonderful than any miracles that were wrought, though on 
the side of its active manifestation it would find in miracles 
only its natural forms of expression. But with all this ex- 
hibition of power, there is nothing strained, and nowhere 
any appearance of effort. The language, even when charged 
with the weightiest burden of meaning, or rising to the sub- 
limest heights, is, in its naturalness and simplicity, fitted to 
be the reading of a child. When we go into the Epistles, 
especially those of St. Paul, we are conscious of a change. 
The same ideas come up to be applied under new circum- 
stances, or carried out into their more distant results. But 
we feel the strain that is put upon the language, and the 
efforts that are made by the writer to keep up with. the 
greatness of his theme. 

Christ came to establish the kingdom of heaven on 
earth. Perhaps we may say that this is the central idea of 
the Evangelist. The Baptist came to announce it, and its 
near approach was the burden of his preaching. It was the 
key-note to the ministry of Jesus. " From that time Jesus 
began to preach, and to say, ' Repent, for the kingdom of 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 521 

Heaven is at hand.' " In his Sermon on the Mount, he un- 
folded the nature of that kingdom ; and, beginning with the 
Beatitudes, showed how it was to absorb into itself the Law 
and the Prophets, and refine their precepts into the prin- 
ciples of a spiritual and divine life. From time to time, 
as his disciples could bear, and beyond what they could 
bear, he brought forward the graces and charities which 
were peculiarly his own, and established a sincere and child- 
like humility of soul as the one essential condition of pre- 
eminence in his kingdom. " Whosoever wishes to be great 
among you, let him be your servant ; and whosoever wishes 
to be first among you, let him be your slave." Only he 
who, unmindful of his own interests, binds himself by the 
severest obligations to serve others- can hope for the highest 
place in the kingdom of God. This heavenly kingdom, or 
kingdom of Heaven on earth, is explained and illustrated by 
precept and parable and symbolical act It is represented 
as already here, a divine influence and agency in the world. 
He speaks of the time, then not far removed, when he should 
" come in his kingdom " (xvi. 28), " on the clouds of heaven 
with power and great glory" (xxiv. 30). He speaks of it, 
at other times, as reaching above and beyond this world in 
its acts and retributions (xvi. 19, xxv. 31 — 46). In the 
last words of the Gospel, he speaks of its final consum- 
mation, — whether on earth or in worlds beyond, he 
does not say ; for time and space are only occasional, 
and, as it were, accidental accompaniments to his thought, 
which reaches through and beyond all that belongs to 
them. 

But in the closing words of the Gospel, taken in connec- 
tion with all that has gone before, we have indicated to us 
the great Mediatorial office and kingdom of Christ, for 
which, as its head and king, all authority on the earth and 
in heaven has been given to him, and for the advancement 
of which he sends forth his messengers into every land, 
promising himself to be always with them until the whole 
44* 



522 MATTHEW XXVIII. 

shall be fulfilled. Here in this world are its beginnings, 
and, to a certain extent, its progress with each individual 
soul, and with the race from generation to generation. It is 
a spiritual kingdom in which Christ reigns, coming down 
into this sphere of human interests and souls, dispensing its 
divine influences more and more, as men are prepared to 
receive them from age to age, taking up into itself whatever 
is highest and holiest in man's thought, to infuse into it a 
diviner life, to lay upon it the hand of a holier ordination, 
and set it apart for a higher purpose, using present attain- 
ments, never as ends, but always as instruments and helps to 
a further progress, translating its faithful subjects as the 
ransomed of the Lord from earthly experience to heavenly 
fruition in what is to each one of them "the end of the 
world." 

Christ came to establish this kingdom among men. He 
has revealed to us its nature, its agencies, and its design, 
in words of calmness and power. He has promised to be 
always with us while we are laboring to unfold its truths, to 
enforce its precepts, and establish its authority on the earth. 
His words (xiii. 41, xxv. 34) point also to an influence and 
a kingly office which he is to have beyond this mortal life 
and world. But the idea which he introduced is taken up 
by St. Paul, and carried on into its remote and final results 
with all the enthusiasm of his fervid and powerful mind. 

Perhaps we cannot give a more striking example of the 
difference between Christ's method of instruction, as shown 
in the Gospel of St. Matthew, and Paul's, as shown in his 
Epistles, than is furnished by what they have taught on this 
subject. The teachings of Christ we have already consid- 
ered. St. Paul delights to .enlarge and* expatiate upon 
them. With him this idea of the Mediatorial kingdom of 
Christ reaches we know not how high into the realms of 
light, or how far below into the realms of darkness, extend- 
ing back in its preparation before the foundation of the 
world, and forward through we know not what succession 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 523 

of ages upon ages, till at length, working out its mighty 
evolutions, every opposing rule and authority and power is 
subdued and overthrown, and it has accomplished its design 
as one of the asons of eternal love and wisdom, and Christ 
in triumph shall give back into his Father's hands the king- 
dom and the authority which are now intrusted to him. In 
looking to the new worlds of spiritual life and joy which 
have been created in the advent and progress of that king- 
dom, through every part of which Christ's influence extends 
as a redeeming, creative, and sustaining presence, he thus 
speaks : " Giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made 
us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
light ; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, 
and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in 
whom we have the redemption [" through his blood " is 
omitted by Teschendorf], the forgiveness of sins ; who is an 
image of God, first-born of all creation ; because in him 
were all created that are in the heavens and upon the earth, 
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations or 
principalities or authorities, — all were created through him 
and to him, and he is before all, and all stand together in 
him, and he is the head of the body, the Church, who is 
first, being first born from the dead, that he might be pre- 
eminent in all." (Col. i. 12-18.) Carrying his thoughts 
on into other worlds, respecting which there is a sacred 
reserve in our Saviour's communications, St. Paul delights 
to speak of the homage which was there paid to his Re- 
deemer, when God " raised him from the dead and set him 
at his own right hand among the heavenly ones, far above 
all principality and power and might and dominion, and 
every name that is named, not only in this world [aeon], but 
in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his 
feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the Church, 
which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." 
(Eph. i. 20 - 23.) His language glows with a new intensity, 
and rises into a more majestic grandeur and a loftier har- 



524 MATTHEW XXVIII. 

mony, as he catches from beyond this world glimpses of the 
active power of Christ, the still advancing progress of his 
victorious kingdom, or its last and crowning triumph. " Fi- 
nally," — we quote from the translation of Conybeare and 
Howson, — " the end shall come, when he shall give up his 
kingdom to God his Father, having destroyed all other 
powers which claim rule and sway. For his kingdom must 
last ' till he hath put all enemies under his feet' And last 
of his enemies, death also shall be destroyed. For ' God 
hath put all things under his feet.' But in that saying, ' all 
things are put under him,' it is manifest that God is except- 
ed, who put all things under him. And when all things are 
made subject to him, then shall the Son also subject himself 
[himself be made subject] to Him who made them subject, 
that God may be all in all." (1 Cor. xv. 24-28.) 

There is a singular grandeur and a far-reaching grasp of 
thought in these views which St. Paul has given of the Me- 
diatorial kingdom and office of Christ. But we see in his 
language marks of effort and excitement, the strugglings of 
a mind, however great and inspired it may have been, to 
master his vast theme, and to find language in which to 
embody his conceptions. But the words of Jesus come to 
us as the unexcited and easy utterances of one who is 
speaking without effort, and by no means above the level 
of his daily and familiar thought. They lie before us in 
the calm sunlight of God's truth and the bosom of his love. 
Great as they are, they plainly come from one who is 
greater than they, and in whom it is an act of condescension 
rather than of exaltation to set them forth, and to illustrate, 
explain, and enforce them, as a Master to his disciples, while 
an air of divine authority and of unspeakable tenderness 
distinguishes alike his words to them and all his deportment 
towards them. Whatever we may find in the language of 
the Apostles, — and no other writers have ever approached 
them in richness of spiritual thought or loftiness of concep- 
tion and of speech, — when we read the words and the life 



MATTHEW xxvin. 525 

of Jesus, we feel, as did the officers who were sent to appre- 
hend him, that " never man spake [or lived] like this man." 
But in studying the Gospels we must beware of placing 
ourselves too much in the attitude of critics and judges, 
even though it be to confirm their authority. The word 
that Christ hath spoken shall judge us, and not be judged 
by us. Our posture is that of loving, trusting, inquiring, 
and believing disciples. We come with no theories of our 
own to establish, but with a single purpose and desire to 
learn the true meaning of his words of eternal life, and 
what he would have us to do. It is sad to think with what 
" a veil upon their hearts " the great majority of the Chris- 
tian world come when they would study the Gospel of 
Christ. They can receive from the boundless affluence of 
his instructions only so much as may be in accordance, not 
only with their present moral, intellectual, and spiritual cul- 
ture, but with formulas of faith drawn up and established by 
the authority of man. Christ speaks to the individual soul, 
and holds each one of us to a severe and solemn sense of 
accountability to himself, from which no authority on earth 
can ever absolve us. The one distinguishing feature of his 
Gospel is the way in which it addresses itself to the individ- 
ual consciousness, and demands from each one a direct and 
personal allegiance to him. The more universal the truths 
which he proclaimed, the more directly should they come 
home to each heart and draw it towards himself. Almost 
every word that he spoke, whether for doctrine, reproof, 
correction, or instruction and encouragement in righteous- 
ness, comes to us, not only as a truth on which our minds 
should dwell, but as a precept which we should take home 
to our hearts and carry with us in our lives. In this way 
his words may become spirit and life to us. And his last 
directions to his followers, instead of furnishing matter for 
theological disputations, may be dwelt upon and cherished 
and obeyed as if addressed to each one of us with all the 
weight of his commandment, with all the fulness of his in- 



526 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 



struction, with all the tenderness of his love, and with the 
certainty that to every one of us his promise will be ful- 
filled. " All power is given unto me in heaven and on 
earth. Go ye and make disciples of all nations, baptizing 
them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things what- 
soever I have commanded you : and lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world." 



NOTES. 



In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the 
first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other 
Mary, to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great 
earthquake ; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, 
and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat 
upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment 



1. In the end of the sab- 
bath, as it began to dawn 
toward the first day of the 
week] The Jewish Sabbath, it 
will be remembered, corresponds 
with our Saturday. The day- 
ended at sunset. The passage 
may be rendered, After the Sab- 
bath, as it began, &c. " No mortal 
eye," says Dr. Carpenter, " wit- 
nessed the glorious moment when 
the Son of God came forth from the 
tomb, the first-fruits of a resuiTec- 
tion to an immortal life; ana the 
narratives of the Evangelists merely 
respect the disclosures of the great 
event. Their close adherence to 
what alone was known is very 
striking." " The writers of the 
New Testament," says Olshausen, 
" make mention of what they saw 
only, as ' that the sepulchre was 
already empty.' The creative en- 
ergies operated in silence and unob- 
servedly, and wove for the sublime 
person of the Lord, as it were, a 



raiment of celestial light, worthy of 
investing the king of the world of 
light. Even so, no human eye, at 
that moment when the energies of 
life flowed into it, beheld how the 
body of the Holy One arose." 
" The resurrection • was the great 
act which the Apostles published, 
and that peculiarly and alone.'.' 

2. And, behold, there 
was a great earthquake] " A 
shaking or commotion of any kind; 
probably the word means no more 
than the confusion caused among 
the guards by the angel's appear- 
ance; all this had taken place be- 
fore the women reached the sepul- 
chre." Adam Clarke. for 
the angel of the Lord] an angel 
of the Lord. " Like the commence- 
ment of the Lord's life upon earth, 
this beginning of his glorified life 
was also adorned with kindi-ed an- 
gel visions." 3. his counte- 
nance] his form or appearance was 
like lightning. The commotion, what- 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 



527 



4 white as snow. And for fear of him the keepers did shake, 

5 and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said 
unto the women, Fear not ) r e ; for I know that ye seek Jesus, 

6 which was crucified. He is not here ; for he is risen, as he 

7 said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go 
quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead ; 
and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall ye 
see him : lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from 
the sepulchre, with fear and great joy, and did run to bring his 

9 disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, 
Jesus met them, saying, All hail ! And they came and held 



ever it may have been, and the 
opening of the tomb by rolling 
back the stone from the door, must 
have occurred before the women 
reached the place. The manifesta- 
tion of the angel is probably de- 
scribed as it appeared to them in 
dazzling whiteness and splendor. 
Whether the angel appeared to their 
bodily eyes, or only to their spiritu- 
al perceptions, is a speculative ques- 
tion which hardly falls within the 
province of a work like this. The 
reader who may be curious in such 
matters will find it ably discussed 
in " Foregleams of Immortalitv," by 
the Rev. E. H. Sears. "All the 
difficulties, or seeming discrepan- 
cies," it is there said, (p. 191,) "in 
the four narratives, have grown out 
of the most absurd assumption that 
the angels appeared in bodies like 
ours, and to the mortal senses'. 
The variations are just what they 
would be to the variant perceptions 
of the half-opened spiritual vision. 
John and Peter saw nothing, some 
of the women probably saw noth- 
ing, and doubtless none of them 
saw all. We do not imagine that 
the divine messengers had been ab- 
sent from any part of that scene of 
sorrow and dismay on Friday after- 
ternoon, as they certainly were not 
absent from Gethsemane" the night 
before. True, the Roman soldiers 
might not know it till the gleaming 
terrors dispersed them; and the 
women saw but one or two among 
the divine powers that engirded and 
guarded to its sure accomplishment 
the central fact in the world's his- 



tory, and heralded the victory of 
the' Son of God over death and the 
grave." It is well to have the pic- 
ture of these scenes distinctly be- 
fore us. We have no doubt of the 
fact that angels were then seen ; but 
the precise mode of the angelic 
manifestation, whether by an im- 
pression on the bodily senses or a 
quickening of the spiritual percep- 
tions, is not clearly revealed. The 
effect produced on the soldiers who 
were guarding the sepulchre must, 
we think, have been through the 
bodily senses. 7. and, 

behold, he goeth before you 
into GalileeJ This was fore- 
told by Jesus (Matt. xxvi. 32) 
in almost exactly the words here 
used. The object in going into Gal- 
ilee may have been to secure retire- 
ment, and also that Jesus might 
show himself to the more numerous 
body of his disciples who resided 
there. But while that was to be 
the scene of his most important 
interviews with the Apostles after 
his resurrection, he may have 
shown himself to them 'first in 
Jerusalem, that they might thus 
be led so far to dismiss their doubts 
as to go and meet him with the 
larger company of his followers at 
the appointed place in Galilee. 

8. with fear and great 
joy] " Rejoice with trembling." 
(Ps. ii. 11.) The two emotions in 
the proportions here indicated may 
be united. It is one of those touches 
of nature which help to bring the 
whole scene before us. 9. 

And they came and held him 



528 



MATTHEW XXVI IT. 



him by he feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto io 
them, Be not afraid : go, tell my brethren that they go into 
Galilee, and there shall they see me. 

Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came 11 
into the city, and showed unto the chief priests all the things 
that were done. And when they were assembled with the 12 
elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto 
the soldiers, saying, Say ye, His ■ disciples came by night, 13 
and stole him away, while we slept. And if this come to u 



by the feet, and worshipped 
him] A not unusual mark of rev- 
erence in the East to persons of su- 
perior dignity. With what body 
Christ rose, is a question which it 
is more difficult than profitable to 
discuss. The body which was laid 
in the tomb had risen. But what 
changes it had undergone is nowhere 
intimated. From the fact that the 
women clung to his feet, that 
Thomas was asked to thrust his 
hand into his side (John xx. 27), 
and that he asked the disciples to 
handle him and see, " for a spirit 
hath not flesh and bones as you see 
me have " (Luke xxiv. 39), we can- 
not well escape the conviction that 
he rose in a body which acted on 
those he met, as other bodies do, 
through the physical organs of 
sense. On the other hand, his not 
being recognized by the two disci- 
ples with whom he conversed on 
the way to Emmaus would seem to 
show that he had then undergone 
some remarkable change in his per- 
sonal appearance; and his disap- 
pearance from them the moment 
he was known (Luke xxiv. 31), 
and his appearance in the midst of 
the Apostles more than once while 
they were assembled with closed 
doors (John xx. 19, 26), seem to 
imply a facility of movement of 
which the Gospels furnish no pre- 
vious instances, unless perhaps in 
the account of his walking upon 
water. We cannot tell when his 
body became spiritual and immortal. 
Olshausen supposes that " the pro- 
cess of glorification went on during 
the forty days after the resurrec- 
tion, and was not thoroughly per- 



fected until the period of his ascen- 
sion to heaven." It becomes us to 
be diffident in regard to any spe- 
cific views that we may entertain 
in this matter. It is enough for us 
to know Christ did rise from the 
dead, whatever may have been the 
changes which his body underwent 
in death, and before the ascension. 
12. And when they 
were assembled with the el- 
ders, and had taken counsel] 
Here was a meeting, a hasty and 
pi-obably an informal one, of the 
Jewish Sanhedrim. It may seem 
strange that the soldiers should 
have gone first to the priests, rather 
than to their own superior officers. 
But it is plain, from Matt, xxvii. 64, 
65, that the guard of soldiers had 
not only been granted at the request 
of the priests and Pharisees, but 
had been placed under their charge. 
" Ye have a guard," [or watch,] 
s.aid Pilate ; " go, make it as sure as 
ye know how." It would therefore 
be proper and natural for them to 
make their report in the first in- 
stance to their immediate employ- 
ers. 13. Say ye, His 
disciples came by night, and 
stole him away, while we 
slept] This whole incident, it is 
said, is unhistorical and improbable. 
But the ablest scholars cannot trans- 
fer themselves to Jerusalem, as it 
was during those three days, with 
such a minute knowledge of the pre- 
vailing customs, and all the special 
interests then acting, as to be able to 
say precisely what would or what 
would not be historical . in a lit- 
tle incidental occurrence like' this. 
Even in an army under the most 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 



529 



T 0ll. 



YTie o-overnor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure y< 
15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught. And 



rigid discipline, directly before an 
enemy, there are constantly coming 
up little exceptional cases, which 
seem inconsistent with the stately 
march of history, but of which no 
man after the lapse of two thousand 
years can know enough of the at- 
tendant circumstances to pronounce 
them unhistorical or improbable. 
It would be inconsistent, it is said, 
with the dignity of the Sanhedrim, 
to make such a bargain as this with 
the Roman soldiers. But the his- 
tory of the world shows plainly 
enough, that where political or re- 
ligious bigotry has an important 
end to gain, it is not accustomed to 
stand much on its dignity in the 
means which it uses. They who in 
their pride assume the loftiest airs, 
and claim for themselves the great- 
est show of respect, are often the 
very persons who stoop to the 
meanest and most dishonorable 
arts. But then, how could they 
know that Jesus had predicted that 
lie should rise from the dead on the 
third day? Even his own disciples 
did not understand him ; how then 
could they, his enemies ? There is 
nothing in the world so suspicious 
as the malignant spirit of such men, 
when confronted with an ingen- 
uous and powerful mind, that sees 
through and exposes their subter- 
fuges and pretensions. Having no 
honesty of their own, they cannot 
conceive of such a thing as an hon- 
est purpose in those who stand in 
their way. They distrust them at 
every turn. They subject their 
acts and words to every unfavora- 
ble construction that is possible. 
They see a plot or an intrigue in 
the simplest declaration. What 
wonder, then, if the chief priests 
should have heard the distinct 
and reiterated declarations of our 
Saviour respecting his death and 
resurrection on the third day ? The 
disciples could not understand the 
words of their Master, but they 
must have repeated them again and 
again, with strange perplexity of 
heart. And what more natural 
45 



than that the Jewish leaders, look- 
ing everywhere for a plot, and 
never quite secure of having ac- 
complished their guilty purpose, 
even in the death of their victim, 
should, in calling to mind this dec- 
laration, apprehend and provide 
against some such design as that 
which is recorded at the close of 
the previous chapter? And when 
their precautions, as the most sub- 
tle devices of such men often do, 
had failed, and turned against them- 
selves, what more natural than for 
them to adopt the only expedient 
then possible, and bribe' the soldiers 
to misrepresent the facts? But 
then, it is asked, how would the 
soldiers dare to confess that they 
had fallen asleep on their watch? 
Would it not expose them to the 
severest punishment for a serious 
violation of the rules of military 
discipline? In reply to this, it may 
be said, that their employers — the 
very men to whom they were di- 
rectly accountable for any remiss- 
ness in their watch, and who alone 
would have an opportunity to com- 
plain of them — were the men who 
proposed the bargain with them, 
whose interest it was that no seri- 
ous accusation should be brought 
against them, and who promised to 
interfere in their behalf if by any 
chance the report of their remiss- 
ness in duty should reach the ears 
of the governor. " To affirm," says 
Davidson, (Introduction to the New 
Testament, Vol. I. pp. 82, 83,) " that 
the falsehood could not have es- 
caped Pilate, is to assume that he 
took more interest in the matter 
than his whole character justifies. 
All his anxiety must have coin- 
cided with the measures already 
taken against the person of Christ, 
in which he had reluctantly in- 
volved himself. And as the story 
told him by the chief priests and 
scribes must have been more wel- 
come than the real account of the 
case would have been, he naturally 
believed it, and took no further 
trouble. Had he heard the true 



530 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 



this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this 
day. 



circumstances attendant on Jesus's 
rising from the dead, his fears 
would have been excited, and his 
conscience rendered doubly uneasy. 
Such tidings must have been disa- 
greeable to his agitated spirit. But 
when he learned that the body had 
been stolen by the disciples at 
night, his fears had not to be al- 
layed, nor were his superstitious 
feelings to be quieted. He felt that 
the part he had taken in putting 
Christ to death was unattended by 
the guilt and impiety in which it 
must have presented itself, had Je- 
sus proved himself the Son of God 
by rising from the dead. Thus the 
information given by the Sanhe- 
drim to Pilate, false though it was, 
found a welcome reception. Had 
he even suspected its truth, he 
would not have instituted a process 
of inquiry. Whether Joseph of 
Arimathea, Nicodemus, and Ga- 
maliel were present at the meet- 
ing of the Sanhedrim, is a point 
that cannot be ascertained. .... 
And if they were present, had 
they the moral courage to object? 

And suppose they did protest 

against the unworthy resolution, 
was it incumbent on the historian 
to relate the fact? The decision of 
the majority is the decision of a 

council Hence the record is 

perfectly consistent with the idea of 
a few persons refusing to sanction 
the open dissemination of a false- 
hood." On the whole, this little 
episode, instead' of appearing unhis- 
torical and improbable, seems to us 
to bear upon its face the marks of 
truth. We agree entirely with 
what Mr. Norton has said on this 
matter in his Internal Evidences of 
the Genuineness of the Gospels (pp. 
233,234): "The remark that the 
miracles of Christ appear from the 
Gospels to have been unquestioned, 
is true of what may be more strict- 
ly called his miracles. But it is not 
true of the fact of his resurrection. 
Respecting this, St. Matthew re- 
lates that there was a story in cir- 
culation that his disciples came by 



night and stole his body away 
while the guards slept The effect 
of this single exception is to con- 
firm the argument derived from the 
general characteristics' of the Gos- 
pels before mentioned. Here we 
are told by the Evangelist, that the 
most important miracle which he 
records was treated as an impos- 
ture. We may fairly conclude, 
therefore, that with the same hon- 
esty, or the same indifference, or 
the same incapacity for deception, 
he would, in some way, have given 
us information of the fact, if the 
truth of the other miracles recorded 
by him had been called in question. 
What he here expressly states con- 
firms most strongly the correctness 
of those accounts which imply that 
their truth was not disputed. But 
in what manner does he mention 
this particular story of the unbe- 
lieving Jews ? He merely states it, 
without any attempt at refutation, 
without even a formal denial of it, 
without a single remark respecting 
it. He could not have treated it 
with more indiffei*ence, or with . 
more appearance of regarding it as 
destitute equally of plausibility and 
of truth, and "wholly unlikely to 
obtain credit. If the story had 
been urged with any confidence, if 
it had been in fact believed by 
those who brought it forward, it 
would hardly have been passed 
over with such slight." 
15. until this day] i. e. until the 
time when the Gospel was written. 
There is no decisive evidence when 
that was, but the probabilities, we 
think, rather point to a period eight 
or ten years after the death of 
Christ, or about A. r>. 42 or 43. 

16. Then the eleven disci- 
ples went away into Galilee] 
There is no then in the Greek. 
Matthew not unfrequently passes 
from one event to another, which 
took place at a different period, 
without one word to indicate the 
time that intervened between them. 
The natural inference from his lan- 
guage her© would be that the Apos- 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 



531 



16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into 

17 a mountain, where Jesus had appointed them. And when 



ties went to Galilee immediately 
after the resurrection. But, in ac- 
cordance with his method of speak- 
ing in other cases, we may suppose 
a week or a month to have inter- 
vened between the two events. 
into a mountain] to "the moun- 
tain, where Jesus had appointed." 
the eleven] Matthew men- 
tions only the eleven; but this does 
not imply that they were the only 
persons who met Jesus at the ap- 
pointed mountain. The " Go, tell 
my brethren" of ver. 10, indicates a 
larger circle of disciples. Probably 
notice had been extensively given 
among the more intimate and trust- 
ed followers of Jesus that they should 
meet him at some particular place 
which he had specified. The defi- 
nite article, which our translators 
omit before mountain, proves this, 
though Matthew does not mention 
where it was. This may have been 
the occasion when he was seen of 
u above five hundred brethren at 
once." (1 Cor. xv. 6.) 17. but 

some doubted] Of course, the 
Apostles who had met Jesus in Je- 
rusalem more than once since his 
resurrection, could have had no 
doubts. Either Matthew has trans- 
ferred to this meeting the doubts 
which the Apostles' had shown in 
Jerusalem, or, as is more probable, 
he speaks here of doubts entertained 
by some of the followers of Jesus 
who had not met their risen Lord 
before, and who in the excitement 
of a first interview could hardly 
overcome their doubts so as to be- 
lieve their own eyes. It was pre- 
cisely the same state of mind which 
the Apostles had shown when they 
were first told of the resurrection, 
and which Thomas persisted in till 
he had the opportunity to see and 
examine for himself. It is a strong 
proof of the truthfulness of the 
writers, that they should so fear- 
lessly insert this in their nai-ratives, 
without one word of explanation 
or apology. Our view of the 
doubters is that given by Juven- 
cus, a Latin writer who lived in the 



reign of Constantine. " Nor yet," 
he says, " did fidelity [virtus] re- 
main equally in the breasts of all 
[who were assembled to meet him 
on the Galilaean mountain}; for a 
part of them doubted." Grotius 
and some others render the verse, 
" but some had doubted," giving to 
the aorist the force of the pluper- 
fect. . The interpretation that we 
have adopted is more in accordance 
with the language of Matthew. 

18. All power is given unto 
me in heaven and in earth] 
Literally in heaven and on earth. All 
power, or authority, indicating the in- 
fluence which it is given him to ex- 
ercise over the souls of men in this 
world and the world to come. In 
Col. i. 11, St. Paul says, that ve, 
" strengthened with all power,' 1 '' &c. 
But Christ's authority is not con- 
fined to the earth, but diffuses itself 
through earth and heaven. See Eph. 
i. 19-23; Col. i. 12-18; 1 Pet, iii. 
22. We suppose that St. Paul (Rom. 
xiv. 9) explains what is meant by 
the expression on earth and in heav- 
en; " For to this end Christ both 
died, and rose, and revived, that lie 
might be Lord both of the dead and 
living.' 1 '' The living, and the dead 
who live in a yet higher sense, 
make one great community of souls, 
over whom God has given' to Christ 
all authority or power on earth and 
in heaven. " Wherefore God also 
hath highly exalted him, and given 
him a name which is above every 
name, that at [literally in] the 
name of Jesus every knee should 
bow of those in heaven, and those 
in earth, and those under the earth; 
and that every tongue should con- 
fess that Jesus Christ is Loi-d, to 
the glory of God the Father." 
(Phil. ii. 9-11.) It will be ob- 
served, that every one of these pas- 
sages which unite with that before 
us in ascribing to Jesus such au- 
thority, agrees also with his asser- 
tion here, and Matt. xi. 27, in de- 
claring that however vast his powei 
may be, it is all given to him by the 
Father. It is a derived, and not an 



532 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 



they saw him, they worshipped him ; but some doubted. And is 
Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given 



original authority. We must be 
careful in our dogmatic theology 
lest we forcibly inject our ideas into 
our Saviour's language, and, by in- 
corporating them into his instruc- 
tions, give his words a meaning 
wholly foreign to his intention. All 
authority is given to me in heaven and 
on earth. "Was there ever a man 
that dared put himself on the world 
in such pretensions ? — as if all light 
was in him, as if to follow him, and 
be worthy of him, was to be the con- 
clusive or chief excellence of man- 
kind ! But no one is offended with 
Jesus on this account, and, what is 
a sure test of his success, it is re- 
markable that, of all the readers of 
the Gospel, it probably never even 
occurs to one in a hundred thou- 
sand, to blame his conceit, or the 
egregious vanity of his pi^etensions. 

Come now, all ye that tell us 

in your wisdom of the mere natural 
humanity of Jesus, and help us to 
find how it is, that he is only a nat- 
ural development of the human; 
select your best and wisest charac- 
ter; take the range, if you will, 
of all the great philosophers and 
saints, and choose out one that is 
most competent; or if, perchance, 
some one of you may imagine that 
he is himself about on a level with 
Jesus (as we hear that some of you 
do), let him come forward in this 
trial and say, ' Follow me,' ' Be 
worthy of me,' ' I am the light of 
the world,' ' Ye are from beneath, 
I am from above,' ' Behold a great- 
er than Solomon is here ; ' take on 
all these transcendent assumptions, 
and see how soon your glory will 
be sifted out of you by the de- 
tective gaze, and darkened by the 

contempt of mankind ! Do 

you not tell us that you can say as 

divine things as he? Are you 

not in the front rank of human 
developments ? Do you not rejoice 
in the power to rectify many mis- 
takes and errors in the words of 
Jesus? Give us then this one ex- 
periment, and see if it does not 
prove to you a truth that is of some 



consequence; viz. that you are a 
man, and that Jesus Christ is — 
more." Bushnell, " Nature and 
the Supernatural," pp. 289-292. 

19. Go ye, therefore, and 
teach all nations] Therefore 
does not belong to the text. Teach ; 
the original word means make dis- 
ciples, and it is unfortunate that it 
was not so translated in our com- 
mon version. " Go ye and make 
disciples of all nations, baptizing 
them into the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost, and teaching them to ob- 
serve all things whatsoever I have 
commanded you." That is, they 
are to make all men disciples, bap- 
tizing them as the initiatory rite, 
and teaching them to observe all 
things whatsoever that Christ had 
commanded them. baptizing 
them in the name of the Fa- 
ther, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost] " After all that 
has been written," says Davidson, 
(Introduction to the New Testa- 
ment, I. 93, 94,) " it is exceedingly 
difficult to settle the precise mean- 
ing of the expression to baptize into 
the name of the Father, tfc. Per- 
haps De Wette assigns it too much" 
meaning, when it is made to in- 
volve an express obligation to re- 
ceive the doctrine of a Triune God 
as a direct object of faith. The 
primary idea of it, as far as we can 
gather from similar phrases in the 
New Testament, seems to be this, 
that the person baptized is sup- 
posed to adopt the system of relig- 
ion in which the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost occupy the pre-eminent 
position, — to come into a state of 
subordination to the laws of Chris- 
tianity Those who submit- 
ted to baptism virtually professed, 
by their desire for initiation into a 
Christian church, to adopt the re- 
ligious system, and to be subject to 
the laws of the Son of God. This 
is probably all that the Apostles and 
their companions inculcated on the 
baptized, or that they would have 
required from them had they reason 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 



533 



19 unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and 
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 



to think that any desiring to be 
admitted within the pale of Christi- 
anity were not proper subjects of 
baptism." It certainly could not 
have been without design that our 
Saviour left this form of introduc- 
tion into his Church with so wide a 
margin for differences of individual 
thought and belief. If he had 
wished to establish the doctrine of 
a Trinity of three equal persons in 
the Godhead as a fundamental and 
essential article of faith, he could 
easily have so expressed it in this 
formula as to put his view of the 
matter beyond all possibility of 
doubt. He would have only to 'say, 
" baptizing them into the name of 
God the Father, of God the Son, 
and of God the Holy Ghost, three 
equal persons, and one God" But 
if we shrink, as we do almost with 
a shudder, from putting these words 
into his mouth, or adding them to 
those which he has spoken, why 
should we not also shrink with equal 
earnestness from imposing upon his 
words a meaning which he has 
nowhere expressly authorized, and, 
contrary to his example, insisting 
on that'as an essential condition of 
Christian fellowship ! Why not be 
content to let the terms of admis- 
sion to his Church stand as he and 
his Apostles left them? It will 
not do to narrow down a great 
central statement like this into 
an expression of any one form of 
doctrine which man has been able 
to work out of his own brain. It 
does not follow that, if any one view 
of the Divine nature is false, the op- 
posite view is therefore true, and the 
one which our Saviour meant to 
teach here. No human mind is 
able to exhaust his meaning. The 
more minutely we endeavor to ex- 
plore and explain the nature of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost, the further we shall be, 
in all probability, from the truth. 
We must beware of allowing any 
human standard of opinions to 
measure its capacity or extent. 
" We are all of us, old and young," 

45* 



says Stanley in his " Canterbury 
Sermons," (pp. 111-114,) "beset 
more or less by the sophistries, the 
systems, the schools, the parties, 
which time and circumstance, which 
past ages and our own age, have 
cast up around us and beside us, 
before us and behind us. We are 
involved in their meshes, we walk in 
the grooves which they have made 
for us Yet still there is en- 
couragement and consolation in the 
thought, that none of these things of 
themselves constitute the whole, or 
the essence of Christianity ; that in 
this respect our Lord is still the pat- 
tern of his Church There is 

a true middle .way of religion, which 
not from weakness, not from indo- 
lence, not from halting between two 
opinions, but from sincere love of 
Christ, and from desire to conform 
ourselves to his image, we may 

humbly desire to walk No 

one of us can embrace at a glance 

the whole of Christian truth 

It is both a confirmation and illus- 
tration of this character of Evan- 
gelical doctrine, that, if we look 
into some of the earthly representa- 
tions of it which have met with 
most universal acceptance, they 
also share in this freedom from the 
bonds in which the world is anxious 
to confine them Not be- 
cause their genius is irreligious, not 
because it is weak and faltering. 
No ; but because it transcends the 
limits of our ordinary thoughts, be- 
cause it approaches by another way 
to something like the loftiness of 
Him, whose image and superscrip- 
tion it bears." As we stand before 
a great and comprehensive saying 
of our Lord, like the baptismal 
words, we must remember this, and 
not attempt to measure it by any 
speculative opinions or dogmatic as- 
sumptions of ours. '" 20. unto 
the end of the world] eas tjjs 
p-vvrikeias rov ala>vos. This form 
of expression occurs five times in the 
Gospel of Matthew, and nowhere else 
in the New Testament. A similar ex- 



534 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 



and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to 20 
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And, 



pression is found, Heb. ix. 26 : " But 
now once in the end of the world 
(o-uireAei'a tg>v dioivcov, end of 
the ages), hath he appeared to put 
away sin by the sacrifice of him- 
self." In this instance the word 
diavav, or ceons, in the plural, re- 
fers to a series of dispensations 
which had their consummation in 
the religion of Jesus. In Matt. 
xxiv. 3, " Tell us when these things 
shall be, and what shall be the 
sign of thy coming, and of the end 
of the world?" the expression prob- 
ably has the same meaning. Jesus 
has been announcing the destructive 
retribution that is soon to fall upon 
the Jewish people and their city. 
The disciples ask when these things 
shall be, and what shall be the 
.sign of his coming, and of the end 
of the world? The language has 
a characteristic of Hebrew poetry, 
repeating substantially the same 
idea in different words. Tlie end 
of the world there is the same as 
the end of the Jewish dispensation, 
though it may also foreshadow the 
end of life, i. e. of this present 
earthly dispensation to each indi- 
vidual soul. This higher meaning 
of the expression in its moi-e uni- 
versal application is plainly, we 
think, implied in Matt. xiii. 39, 40: 
" The harvest is the end of the 
world [of this present earthly dis- 
pensation] ; and the reapers are the 
angels. As therefore the tares are 
gathered and burned in the fire ; so 
shall it be in the end of this world." 
This world or dispensation may pos- 
sibly there, as in chapter xxiv., 
refer to the Jewish dispensation, 
and the process by which the good 
and bad among the Israelites should, 
like wheat and tares, be separated 
from one another at the destruction 
of Jerusalem, and the overthrow of 
the old religion. But the language, 
taken in its connection with what 
goes before and after, seems to us to 
foreshadow a mightier event, even 
the retribution which meets every 
man, when to him this age, i. e. the 



dispensation of this mortal life, is 
ended. It is the same at xiii. 49. 
So in the passage before us, the end 
of the world may possibly refer to 
the great event which Jesus has 
described with such prophetic ma- 
jesty of speech (Matt, xxiv.), and 
which, while it should destroy the 
old dispensation as a national relig- 
ion in the overthrow of the nation 
itself, was to free the new dispensa- 
tion and its supporters from a most 
galling tyranny. In this case he 
promises his disciples, that during 
their trials, until that event, he will 
every day be personally present 
with them. It is much more prob- 
able, however, that his promise has 
a more universal application, and is 
for all his followers, in all ages of 
the world, until to each one of them 
in the fuhiess of time the end of the 
world shall come. It is impossible 
to give in English the precise mean- 
ing of the expression. The word 
translated world has nothing to do 
with the material universe which 
we call the world,but means an age 
or dispensation, or condition of being. 
E. g. the care of the world (Matt, 
xiii. 22), i. e. of this present con- 
dition of being. The words trans- 
lated the end mean rather the con- 
summation, completion, or fulfilment. 
So that the end of the world means, 
as nearly as our language can give 
its meaning, the end or fulfilment of 
a dispensation, as in Heb. ix. 26, and 
Matt. xxiv. 3, or the completion or 
consummation of our present con- 
dition of being, as Matt. xiii. 39. 40, 
49 ; and xxviii. 20. The end of the 
world, as used by Matthew, in both 
of its significations, is nearly synony- 
mous with the coming of ike Son of 
man. They both imply the passing 
away of an old, and the coming of 
a new order of things,' the first of 
which is directly indicated by the 
end of the world, and the second by 
the coming of the Son of man. Both 
the terms imply far more than they 
directly express. They have done 
so much in the development of the 



MATTHEW XXVIII. 



535 



lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. 
Amen. 



Christian consciousness, and have 
so bound themselves up in the most 
solemn and endearing associations, 
that no other words can ever take 
their place, or have the power which 
they have over the Christian heart 
and imagination. No attempt to 
analyze such words, or to define 
them precisely, can ever be suc- 
cessful. The fine aroma of senti- 
ment, which fills them as a holy 
incense, and makes them sacred, 



escapes in the process, and leaves 
the words which we use in their 
stead poor and meagre substitutes. 
" And, lo, I am with you alway, 
even unto the end of the world." 
" For then Ave shall be with the 
Lord, as he is even now with us. 
To him, therefore, reader, commit 
thyself, and remain in him ; so will 
it be best for thee in time and in 
eternity." Bengel. 



INDEX. 



Agonv of Gethsemane, 450 - 458, 

468, 469. 
Ambition, Christian, 359. 
Angels, 152-156, 327, messengers, 

428, 429. 
Apostles, 195, 196. 
Article, the Greek, 342. 

Baptism, 67, 69, 336, 358. Formula 

of, 515-519, 532, 533. 
Bearing our infirmities, 143 - 146, 

498, 499. 
Beatitudes, the, 87, 88. 
Bethlehem, 48. 
Bethphage, 366. 

Centurion, 169. 

Church, 289-292, 298, 320-326, 

Q9g _ 330 359 
Coincidences, 29, 30, 444, 445, 511, 

512. 
Coming of the Son of Man, 186 - 188, 

302-304, 346, 347, 399, 400, 407- 

418, 418-422, 534. 
Conception, miraculous, 35 - 39, 382, 

383, 519. 
Creeds, 15-17,517-519. 
Crucifixion, 483-488, 492. Place 

of, 494, 495. 

Darkness, outer, 142, 170. 
Dav, That, 124, 429, 430. 
Death, Christ's view of, 174, 175. 
Death of Christ, 199, 292 - 294, 357. 
Demoniacs, 160-168, 172, 212. 
Devil, the, 76, 77, 82. See Satan. 
Discrepancies, 58, 359, 360, 373, 467, 

468, 470, 471, 489, 490, 505 - 508, 

508-510, 511. 
Double sense, 79, 140, 144-146, 274 

-277, 374, 376, 377, 422, 423. 

Elijah, 66, 312, 313, 315, 316. 

End of the world, 254, 255, 533 - 535. 



Eternal, 229, 254, 255, 344, 443. 
Evenings, two, 170, 269, 270. 
Existence of evil, 240 - 242. 

Faith, 169, 176, 278, 279. 
Fasting, 179. 

First last and last first, 348 - 354. 
Forgiveness of sin, 176, 177. 
Fulfilled, that it might be, 43, 44, 
252, 366, 367. 

Genealogy of Jesus, 34, 35. 

Good, One alone, 344. 

Gospels, to be studied in their own 
light, 11 - 14. With preparation 
of heart, 14, 15. Without pre- 
conceptions, 15 - 30. 

Guilt, national, cumulative, 394, 
395. 

Hell, 95, 208, 214. 
Herod Antipas, 260 - 264. 
Herod the Grea 
Herodians, 386. 
Holy Ghost, the 
Hypocrites, 282, 295. 

Inspiration, 21, 22, 388. 

Jerusalem, destruction of, 407 - 418. 
Jews, why Jesus confined his min- 
istry to them, 284. 
John the Baptist, 60 - 65, 268. 
Jonah, 296. 
Jordan, 68, 356. 
Judas, 444, 445, 458, 465, 480. 
Judgment, day of, 437, 438. 
Just, righteous or justified, 178, 212. 

Kingdom of heaven, or of God, 66, 
116, 211, 253, 303, 344, 346, 520- 
526. 

Lake of Galilee, 148, 149. 



/ V 



538 



INDEX. 



Law fulfilled in Christ's teachings, 

88-93, 94. 
Leprosy, 136 - 138. 
Lord, 169. 

Marriage, 42, 97, 332 - 335, 342, 343. 
Mary, the mother of Jesus, 224- 

226. 
Matthew's Gospel, peculiarities of, 

32, 34. When written, 31, 32. 
Miracles, 35 - 39, 126 - 134, 497, 498, 

500. 
Murder of the Innocents, 50 - 52. 
Mysteries, 251. 

Name, 112. My, 197, 329. 

Oaths, 97. 
Offend, 210, 327. 
Olives, Mount of, 466. 
Omnipresence of Jesus, 329, 330. 

Palm Sunday, 362, 364 - 366. 

Parables, 232. Why Jesus taught 
in, 238-240. 

'Parallelism, 122, 123, 397. 

Passover, 464, 465. 

Peter's denial, 461, 462, 476-478. 

Pharisees, 67, 226, 295. 

Portents, 426, 427. 

Prayer, the Lord's, 102-107. Ef- 
ficacy of, 371. 

Predictions made by Jesus, 357, 376, 
401-406, 407-418. 

Priests, Chief, 356. 

Prophecy, 39 - 41, 43, 44, 52 - 55, 82, 
83, 211, 213, 214, 274-277, 388- 
390, 401 - 406, 467, 491. 

Professions, danger of, 396. 

Providence, 107 - 110, 271. 

Vvxh, life or soul, 115, 191-193, 
199, 301, 302. 



Publicans, 99, 196. 

Regeneration, the, 346, 347. 

Repent, 66. 

Resurrection, 379 - 381, 437, 438. Of 

Jesus, 503-508, 512-515,-526, 

527, 528. 
Retribution, 121, 193, 207, 208, 243, 

244, 331, 340, 341, 373, 374, 386, 

407-422, 432, 434 - 436, 440, 441. 
Rich, 338, 339. 

Sabbath, Christ's view of, 217, 218. 

Sadducees, 67, 295. 

Salvation, 43. 

Sanhedrim, 56. 

Satan, 219 - 222, 245 - 250, 255 - 257, 
293, 442. See Devil. 

Scribes, 95, 170, 273. 

Self-renunciation, 340. 

Sign from heaven, 288. 

Spirits, evil, 157 - 168, 230, 442, 456. 

Son of David, the, 34, 41. Of God, 
35-39, 297, 319, 461. Of Man, 
170, 171, 226, 227, 296, 519, 520. 

Star in the east, 48, 49, 56, 57. 

Supper, the Lord's, 445-449, 466. 

Sword, 471 - 474. 

Synagogue, 83. 

Temptation, the, 70 - 78, 293. 

Tempting God, 81. 

Time, Jewish mode of reckoning, 

355, 361-363. 
Tithes, 398. 

Tomb of Jesus, 501, 502, 528-530. 
Transfiguration, 305 - 311, 315, 316. 
Trial of Jesus, 479, 480, 481-483. 
Tribute-money, 318, 386. 
Types, 419-422. 

Wise men, the, 45 - 50. 



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